


If we don't get to forever

by Ibijau



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Arranged Marriage, Canonical Character Death, Characters ages are changed, Link (Legend of Zelda) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, M/M, Mourning, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Politics, Slow Burn, canon divergence: Link was only in the shrine for five years, characters from pre and post calamity are mixed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-01-02 12:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 37,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21161822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ibijau/pseuds/Ibijau
Summary: In exchange of lands the zoras have long coveted, queen Zelda only demands one thing: that prince Sidon marry the hero of Hyrule who, five years ago, saved the world from disaster.For the good of his people, Sidon resigns himself to the company of a man surrounded by dark rumours and mysteries, a man who saw his sister die and did not save her.But there is more to that cold hero than meet the eye, as Sidon soon realises, and perhaps they can make the best of a union neither of them wanted.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to: let's fuck up Link's life inna brand new way.  
I'm changing a few things compared to canon, but most importantly : characters from both time periods will appear at the same time, because Link's magical sleep only lasted five years, and Mipha was an adult.

"It is a most generous offer," King Dorephan said carefully, avoiding to look at anyone but the young queen. "We will of course need time to reflect on it. You must understand my son has received other equally interesting offers, and I must do what is best for my kingdom."

Queen Zelda nodded, not a hint of emotion on her face. "Naturally. We are, of course, ready to make concessions on trade taxes should you agree, and it would be a unique chance to finally settle the question of the Marshlands."

All the zoras in the room perked up at the offer, making her councillors smirk, but she remained impassible. Sidon couldn't decide if he was impressed or unsettled by this young woman. Perhaps it didn't matter, so long as she kept her word as faithfully as she was rumoured to. The Marshlands... That area had was a contested territory that had nearly brought war between hylians and zoras over the centuries. If they could finally have their claim over it recognised, Sidon did not mind a small sacrifice.

"We will take this information into consideration as we make our decision," Dorephan said at last, more calmly than Sidon would have managed. "Now, my dear, it is getting late and you had a long journey to the Domain. I suggest we adjourn for the day, unless you have other urgent matters to share."

"This was my main order of business," the young Queen replied. "Anything else can wait."

Some more polite pleasantries were exchanged before the queen and her retinue left the throne room. Sidon's eyes lingered on the young man at the back of the group, a boy as cold looking as his queen.

"It wouldn't be be a bad match," Dorephan said when the hylians had gone. "She must be desperate for sea trade if she's willing to sacrifice the Marshlands."

"She didn't say we would have it," Muzu noted. "Just that the issue would be settled. And at what cost! Surely we can find a better match for our prince than this... this hylian _ boy _?"

The elders all nodded in agreement, but Sidon looked at his father and saw there an expression he recognised too well. Last time he had seen it was when the hylians had asked for a warrior to support their hero, a zora they claimed would have appeared to be marked by fate. Many zoras knew how to fight, but Dorephan had known too well that only one had powers out of the norm.

Mipha had insisted back then, for the good of their people, and Sidon too knew his duty.

"He is no ordinary hylian," Sidon reminded them. "He saved us all when ancient evil returned, at a great cost to himself. And if his heroism does not convince you of the value of the fiancé queen Zelda offers for me, I will remind you that his father is Duke of Hateno. Surely that makes him a worthy ally?"

"They say he went mad since awakening," Seggin protested. "Losing five years will do that to a man of course."

That was but one rumour that ran about the hero of Hyrule since he awoke some months earlier, and not the worst one Sidon had heard. Five years of magical sleep may have done many things to a man, but they did far more to his reputation.

“If he were mad, queen Zelda would not have taken the risk of bringing him here,” Dorephan said. “He has no reason to be at her side save to prove that the stories are wrong. Did he look like a demon to you?”

No, but he looked even less expressive than his queen, Sidon thought. With Zelda he knew that she had been trained for years to be this way until she became the perfect queen her father had wanted. She hadn’t cried when the old king had died, people said. But then again, neither did anyone else. The hero, on the other hand… after meeting him the first time, Mipha had proclaimed him a delightful boy with a terrific sense of humour, but ten years had passed since then, five of which he’d been barely kept alive by sheikah magic. There could be little left of that funny boy now, not after everything that had happened.

“Sidon, what do you think of this option?” Dorephan asked. “I will not force you into a match that you do not approve of.”

“If we really get the Marshland, it is the best offer we’ve received so far,” Sidon said after a moment of consideration. “Otherwise, I still believe the union with Labrynna would be more profitable. It all depends on what queen Zelda is really ready to give us. Of course there is the prestige of having a hero of Hyrule join our family, but that is a lesser consideration when no issue can be expected of it. It’s the Marshland or we choose Labrynna, father.”

Dorephan nodded and Sidon felt himself relax a little, relieved that he had reached the conclusion his father expected of him.

“Muzu, I want you to gather every treaty we have that prove our claim on the Marshlands,” Dorephan ordered. “We will see tomorrow what that little queen can give up, but it will not harm to be prepared. You may all go, I will see you later at the banquet. Not you, Sidon,” he added as his son turned to leave. “Stay a moment.”

Expecting to be given some further instructions on how to behave around the queen as negotiations were about to start, Sidon obeyed and waited until the Council of Elders had left. Once they were alone his father beckoned him closer and Sidon allowed himself a more relaxed posture.

“I am proud of the way you are handling this,” Dorephan said with a gentle touch to his son’s shoulder. “And yet I worry. As a king I would gladly have that match, but as a father I am unsure I should let my son be tied to a man with such a reputation.”

“We are royalty first and a family second,” Sidon recited, something his mother used to say when he was little and he didn’t want to appear at public functions. Mipha too had reminded them of that when Dorephan had expressed some last doubt about her helping the hero of Hyrule. “I don’t mind doing what is needed, father, and I’m sure most stories are pure fantasy. He doesn’t look like he feeds on bokoblins, and if he were half as violent as some say, queen Zelda would have disposed of him.”

It had been very odd, how old king Rhoam had died, people said. His daughter hadn’t cried, and she hadn’t looked surprised either. If really she had arranged the death of her own father, that woman would have no qualms doing the same of a hero who had become too troublesome.

“I do not like to listen to rumours,” Dorephan replied, “but I cannot ignore them either. I will have a word with Jhiato so you are seated next to that hero tonight. Try to talk to him and see if he is someone you can conceive having at your side for the next sixty or so years. It would be pleasant to have full control of the Marshlands once more, but not if the cost is too high.”

“Of course, father,” Sidon promised, hoping he wouldn’t have to lie to his father. 

It would be unpleasant to be tied to a feral monster or to a soulless idiot, as some stories described the hero, but the Marshland were as vast as a third of their current territories and as his father had said, it would only be for sixty years, perhaps less. He would still have over half his life to contract a more pleasant union after, perhaps even have a chance for a love match since he would have already done his duty for the kingdom once.

With this out of the way, Dorephan changed the conversation to less heavy matters, reminding his son of some hylian customs they would need to mind and chatting about the dishes that were to be served to their guests that night. Sidon listened and answered as best as he could, but his mind was elsewhere, on this cold little hylian who might become his fiancé.


	2. Chapter 2

After two weeks of intense negotiations, queen Zelda granted them the entire Marshlands in exchange for lowered duties and the right to establish hylian enclaves in the main coastal zora cities. It was a far better deal than they had initially envisioned, especially since those hylians would need to rely on local zora economy for most of their daily needs.

Two weeks, and Sidon was engaged to a hylian with whom he had never even had a conversation.

Not by lack of trying. Every chance he had, Sidon had tried to talk with that cold little man, only to meet a wall of silence. He had even wondered for a while if perhaps the hero of Hyrule was mute, but he was assured that the man could speak. Some of queen Zelda’s guards had heard him talk to his horse, and Dunma swore she had seen him in deep conversation with a child once… though by her own admission the child had been the one doing most of the talking. 

Sidon did not take it too personally. The hero was equally cold to all, from his queen’s richest advisors to Zorana’s humblest servants. He would have liked better to be engaged to someone a little warmer, but it mattered little in the end so long as the hero of Hyrule learned to at least smile and wave for public occasions.

At the party to celebrate their engagement, for example.

Having been mostly left out of the negotiations, Sidon decided to make up for it by organising a party that would honour their hylian guests and show the zora understood and appreciated the alliance offered to them. It would also be a good chance to remind the hylians that Zorana was a rich kingdom already and that they had done Hyrule a favour by accepting this match.

In the two days he was given, Sidon hired cooks from hylian inns in town, set people to decorate the plaza around Mipha’s statue, hired a passing troupe of minstrels to provide entertainment, and generally threw himself into organising this while still taking care of his regular duties. When the hour of the party finally arrived, Sidon was exhausted but proud of what he had accomplished.

The gasps and ‘oh’s of the queen’s retinue were a reward to the prince as they were led to their places at the tables. He wished the hylian queen too would have shown some emotion, but all he got out of her was a blank glance around the room and a dry comment about this being a very charming party. Sidon told himself that coming from her, it was already a warm compliment.

And at least queen Zelda did say something as she sat next to Dorephan. The hero of Hyrule, sitting next to Sidon, gave the plaza the same blank stare but determined it to be beneath him to say a single kind word or to even smile. Sidon didn’t know if his new fiancé was mad as some people said, but he certainly was rude.

Well, Sidon had dealt with rude people before, and he’d always found that good humour was the best weapon against them. He was proud of the work he had done, and he was happy that he was about to help settle an old source of tension, so it wasn’t hard to smile and chat around the hero, suggesting he should try this dish, asking him whether he had ever tried zora cider, commenting on how skilled the gerudo acrobat he had hired had turned out to be even though he hadn’t had a chance to see them perform before that night.

At best, the hero would give him a blank stare. Twice he sighed softly in what could have been either annoyance or tiredness, thought Sidon would have bet on the first. As for food, the only thing the hero of Hyrule deigned taste was a dish of raw fish and rice vinegar that had been put on the table for zoras rather than hylians. He seemed to enjoy it though. At least, Sidon supposed he did, since he ate more than one piece, but it made him uneasy. Hylians didn’t typically eat raw food, but there were rumours about the hero… suddenly, him eating monster flesh did not seem so outlandish anymore.

By the time they reached dessert, Sidon was struggling to maintain his good humour. All of his hard work seemed rather pointless if he hadn’t been able to entertain in the least the two guests of honour, and he was getting tired enough that he couldn’t be sure anymore the Marshlands were really worth sixty years of silent treatment.

“Do try the voltfruit ice cream,” Sidon insisted, resigning himself to hold the whole conversation on his shoulders. “It’s a rare treat.”

To his surprise, the hero of Hyrule frowned a moment at the dish, the first emotion he had shown since Sidon first met him, and reached out for it.

“Urbosa loved those,” he said blankly, his hand almost touching the bowl.

His voice was lower than Sidon would have expected from someone so small, but of course he was always surprised by hylian males in that regard.

“Urbosa… that was the gerudo champion, wasn’t it?” he asked.

Sidon had met her once, she had come to pick Mipha before the great fight. A very tall gerudo with a commanding tone who had patted his cheek and called him a good boy while he tried to comfort his niece. He remembered feeling proud that she would think that, because Mipha always spoke highly of her. But of course Mipha always saw the best in people.

“She was many things,” the hylian replied, dropping his hand. “I’m not hungry.”

“You must miss them,” Sidon said.

Again Link frowned, a hint of anger showing on his face this time, but he did not reply as if Sidon were too far beneath him for that. Or perhaps the question was too stupid. Of course he would miss them. 

Mipha had often said they had become close friends the six of them, in spite of species and age, joking she had found a new family in them. And if Sidon had had over five years to accept the loss of his sister, the hero of Hyrule had only had a few weeks. 

Before Sidon could find a way to recover from that moment of awkwardness, music started, catching their attention. It was the final act of the troupe he had hired, a chorus of singing ritos. They started what appeared as a soulful ballad, but soon morphed into a joyous song about a woman who travelled the world to save her husband from increasingly ridiculous situations. The lyrics were near nonsensical at times from having been translated by someone who probably didn’t have a full mastery of the hylian language, but the song was clearly meant to be a little silly so it added to the charm. 

Unlike the other acts, Sidon had known what to expect with this. His sister had told him about rito wedding songs, how much she had loved hearing those because they were so fun.Sidon had asked specifically for it when he’d realised the troupe had some ritos. Wherever she was now, he hoped Mipha would smile at this.

Queen Zelda did not smile.

Halfway through the song, the hylian queen rose from her seat without a word and walked away. She tapped her hero’s shoulder as she passed behind him and he jumped to his feet, following her like a dutiful dog while everyone stared and the rito performers stopped singing, unsure what to do. Sidon exchanged a look with his father, just as distressed as the singers. Dorephan smiled at him first, then at the rest of the guests.

“I fear our friend queen Zelda needs a moment of rest,” he said. “I am sure she will not resent us for having fun while she takes a moment for herself. Let us hear the rest of that song, then!”

A little awkwardly at first, the ritos resumed their performance. They struggled to regain the energy they’d put into that song, but by the next one it was fully back and the guests all seemed delighted by it, some even joining for the chorus.

Three songs in, Sidon started wondering where the queen and her hero had gone. There was no reason to worry, Seggin had given strict instructions to his knights and surely the hero of Hyrule was more than capable of protecting his queen, he’d more than proven that in the past. Still their abrupt departure and prolonged absence might give the wrong impression about this engagement. After another quick look at his father who nodded at him, sharing the same thoughts, Sidon rose too and went looking for the two hylians.

He did not have to search for them very long. They had just gone to one of the balconies over the plaza, the guards told him, and they hadn’t moved from there. It was a relief, even though Sidon hadn’t believed they would have run very far anyway.

Climbing the stairs three at a time, Sidon soon spotted the troublesome duo leaning against a railing, looking down at the celebration that they had so rudely abandoned. He raised a hand, ready to make himself noticed, but lowered it when he saw the expression on Zelda’s face as she stared down.

“It’s just such bad luck,” Sidon heard her say, a grimace on her usually impassable face. “When we return I can tell them…”

She trailed off and sighed, as if she couldn’t decide. It was a shock to Sidon, more than seeing her so expressive. He’d never seen her unsure of anything before.

“At least you’ll be safe here,” Zelda said after a moment of silence. “I am only asking you to keep up like this until the wedding and then things will be easier.”

“I don’t trust that prince,” Link retorted. “Smiles too much.”

“He is Mipha’s brother, and we trusted her.”

The hero of Hyrule shrugged. Sidon couldn’t see his expression from where he was, and decided that was probably for the best.

“Zorana is the safest place I could find,” queen Zelda insisted. “Mipha always spoke so fondly of it… and whatever prince Sidon might be, I know Dorephan is an honourable man. He’d take you in even without this stupid match if we told him…but you know your father.”

Again the hero shrugged. Or was it a shudder? The light wasn’t very good and Sidon wasn’t close enough to be sure. Either way their conversation stopped after that, and Sidon hesitated on what to do. 

Part of him wanted to go warn his father that the queen and her hero might not have been fully honest with them in asking for this engagement, but that was just politics. Of course they would have had ulterior motives, Sidon had known that already, and at least it did not sound like anything nefarious. He would tell his father what he had heard, but later, when they could be alone without attracting suspicion. For now, appearances were what mattered.

Raising his hand again, Sidon waved at the hylians.

“At last I find you!” he called out to them, smiling as sincerely as he could. “Your majesty, may I ask if you will return to us, or if I should send someone to escort you to your apartments?”

In a second, Zelda’s face was a mask once more.

“We will be returning shortly,” she replied in a cold voice that contrasted with her softer tones just moments ago. “I am most sorry I had to leave this way. Your cider was most excellent, but stronger than what I am used to. What a pity we ended up missing all the singing,” she added as the last notes of a song were replaced only by silence. “I will make sure to give those excellent performers a few rupees to apologize for my rudeness. Shall we go?”

She offered her arm to Link who took it, neither of them looking at Sidon as they walked back downstairs. The zora prince silently followed them, already thinking about how and when he would make a report to his father, and whether the king would be as shocked as him to learn that queen Zelda knew how to have emotions in private.


	3. Chapter 3

With the engagement contract signed, queen Zelda and her retinue headed back to Hyrule, leaving their hero behind. It had been the queen’s demand that Link stay in Zorana so he had a chance to familiarise himself with the place that would become his home for life. It was slightly irregular of course for fiancés to be living together, but as she pointed out, no unwanted accidents were going to happen when both parties were male and so they could do away with some traditions. Sidon thought she was just trying to keep her hero away from Hyrule. His father agreed, especially after being told of the conversation between the queen and her hero.

If the hylians found it odd to let Link live with his fiancé, the zoras had no such problems. They just apologised to the hero for keeping him in guests quarters until his permanent living arrangements were ready, and that was the extent of the problems created by this decision. It made sense after all to have two engaged people live close to each other, especially when the match had been arranged by others.

Sidon was determined to take this chance and continue trying to know more after the man he would marry in some weeks. His hope was that perhaps the hero of Hyrule had only been so quiet and distant because they had never met without some hylian guards or a couple of Zelda’s councilors being present. Without those watchful eyes on him, it was possible the young man would open up a little more easily.

In an attempt to befriend his fiancé and to make him more comfortable, Sidon took it upon himself to make him visit Zora’s Domain. At least the emerged part of it, since the rest was out of reach for hylians. It meant most of the city’s true beauty would remain hidden from the hero but Sidon had always been of the opinion that even the open parts of the city were very fine.

Almost every afternoon, Sidon would fetch Link in his quarters and show him around. There was much to see, from the gorgeous sleeping pools all over the city to the temple built so travellers could worshipped in a dry place. Sidon could tell the history of most places he took the hylian, detailing the ongoing work done to repair this bridge, explaining how that building showed clear gerudo influence due to a past queen’s consort being from the desert, insisting they tasted something from this hylian inn that was reputed even beyond the borders of Zorana. 

All of his enthusiasm and love for the city was met with the same indifference the hero of Hyrule showed everything.

“If you told me what you’d be interested in seeing, I’m sure I could arrange that,” Sidon suggested one night as he walked the man back to his quarters. “Otherwise I can only show you the places  _ I  _ enjoy visiting, and it is clear they are not to your taste.”

Link stopped and frowned, biting his lips as if to keep himself from saying anything. It was a reaction though, at last. Sidon found it encouraging.

“We want you to be as comfortable here as possible,” he insisted. “I am aware you might not have chosen Zorana, but we all want to make it a home for you. Just tell me what you enjoy and I’ll do my best to make it happen.”

“I don’t enjoy anything,” Link retorted, angrier than what few words Sidon had gotten from him so far. “I’m not here to enjoy things, only to fight for Hyrule.”

The declaration left Sidon speechless, his smile falling. A sweet and funny boy, Mipha used to say about the hero of Hyrule. A friend, she called him with a grin that always crept on when she spoke of her fellow champions. How could she have liked so well this man who wanted nothing in life but to fight? Still, Sidon was a zora of his word.

“If that might please you, we could arrange to oversee the knight’s training tomorrow,” he offered. “I will ask Seggin to make sure they are using the dry training ground. Would you like that?”

“That or something else. I don’t care.”

“Maybe you  _ should  _ care a little,” Sidon snapped, before taking a deep breath and smiling once more. “I’m sorry. It has been a long day. I will make the necessary arrangements for tomorrow, and I do hope this will be interesting for you.”

To his frustration, the hylian hero only shrugged, showing neither Sidon’s anger nor his efforts mattered to him. This time the prince did not insist and they walked the rest of the way in silence.

For all that Link had claimed indifference, the instant he stepped on the training grounds something changed in him. There was a spark in his eye as he looked around the place, he glanced at the various training apparatus in the field and watched carefully as a group of young knight entered behind Sergeant Seggin.

“You people know what to do,” Seggin barked at them. “Dunma, I want to see some progress today, is that clear?”

“Yes sir,” Dunma replied in a dry tone, before making a grimace the instant the sergeant turned his back.

“Working with the froglets today?” Sidon noted, trying not to smile. “I hope we will not be too big of a distraction.”

“They’ve got to learn how to stay focused anyway,” Seggin retorted, glaring as his gaze dropped on Link. “And so, this is the man himself. Hero of Hyrule. An  _ honour _ , I suppose.”

The only answer he got was a distracted nod. All of the hylian’s attention was on the young knights, and he did not seem happy with what he was seeing because he kept frowning and biting his lips. Sidon was torn between being glad to finally be getting a reaction, and being annoyed that of course even this wouldn’t please the hero.

“They seem to be doing well,” Sidon commented, almost hoping Link would dare to contradict him. “You have a good brood this time, don’t you?”

“Pah, we’ll see about that,” Seggin grunted. “They think they can rest now that they’ve become knights. They’re not putting in the effort. In my days, knights tried harder than that! I mean, look at that Dunma!”

The old sergeant pointed at his pupil who was practicing with a sword. To Sidon she seemed to be trying her best, as were all the others, but Seggin was known for being a demanding teacher.

“She’s standing wrong,” Link grunted next to them, his frown deepening. “She’s leaving too many openings.”

“Exactly!” Seggin exclaimed, not seeming to notice who had spoken. “And her leg work is pitiful. Pah! She’s a lost cause, I should send her back to her father and… wait a moment!”

It was too late, Link had already run to the young woman and easily taken advantage of her surprise to disarm her with startling ease. Sidon strode their way, fully expecting the hylian hero to scoff at poor Dunma for not doing better when he knew she would have started training with this weapon only recently.

But there was no shouting, no mockery. Instead Link, sword in hand, started demonstrating how Dunma how she needed to accompany the movement of her blade, showing the difference a better posture and leg work could make. After the first instant of surprise Dunma grinned in delight at being taught by the hero of Hyrule himself. When he handed her back the sword she did his best to mirror his movements, listening attentively as he still corrected her.

“No, she needs to hold her sword lower than that,” Seggin intervened at one point. “You’re thinking hylian, boy. Did lady Mipha teach you nothing?”

“I’ve never seen her use a sword,” Link retorted. “And with a sword held so low, you’re leaving yourself open to a head blow. Surely even for zoras that’s bad?”

“Thinking hylian again. I’m training them for real fights, not fancy little tournaments. If she brings her sword back to that position every time she has the chance, it’s easier for her to stab enemies around the gills, where they won’t wear protection. Like this…”

Pretending to have a sword, Seggin mimed hitting Dunma on the side while she dramatically pretended to be hurt. It did not amuse the hylian hero.

“You could kill someone like that.”

“If you’re fighting a zora knight, you have to be ready to forfeit your life.”

Something changed in the hero of Hyrule, his posture a little stiffer.

“Not that they’re ready for action yet,” Seggin noted, also rather unamused by Dunma’s antics. “Not until they can swordfight a little better. Any idiot can use a trident, but a sword calls for real skill.”

Seggin’s froglets protested at that, likely because they hadn’t spent months perfecting their use of tridents to have it dismissed so casually, but he silenced them with a glare before turning his attention back to the hero of Hyrule.

“My lord, would you face my student for some sparring? I’m sure she could learn even more from you this way.”

Link’s eyes lit up again, which Sidon took as his cue to intervene.

“I’m unsure this would be wise,” he protested. “We do not have any protective clothing his size, and…”

“I don’t need protection,” the hylian cut him, his eyes on Dunma, as if he were measuring her. “But I  _ will  _ need a weapon.”

Before he was done speaking, the young knights were all trying to hand him their own sword, nearly fighting for that honour. Link appeared oblivious to their excitement and just picked one apparently at random (Tottika grinned) and inspected it with care. He seemed only mildly impressed by it, swinging it a few times before sighing in resignation.

“Let’s do this. Dunma, try to counter me.”

Grinning confidently, she got in position. Link’s first strike was slow, clearly meant to check she was ready, and she blocked him easily. The next one was faster and stronger, but Dunma still managed to stop it.

“Keep your back straight,” Link advised. “Shoulders back. Bend your knees but keep your core strong, that’s where your power is. Again, and mind your posture.”

He struck a third time, nodding when Dunma kept a better posture as she stopped his attack. They repeated this a few times, Link varying his angles and his speed until he seemed satisfied with Dunma’s efforts.

“The other way around now. Try to hit me.”

A little less sure of herself, Dunma glanced at Seggin and Sidon. The prince felt tempted to ask her to stop, but her teacher motioned for her to proceed. Timidly Dunma waved her sword toward the hero of Hyrule, the gesture so weak and badly aimed that he did not bother to counter an attack that could never have hit him.

“That was a mistake,” Link said coldly. “You’re underestimating me because of my size, but I’ve killed bigger than you. If you’re just going to insult me, we’re stopping this.”

“I’m sorry, I’ll try!” Dunma promised, glancing again at Sidon. “I’m sorry, lord Link.”

Link scowled at the title, but got in position again to give her another chance. This time Dunma did aim for him, but she was still too hesitant. Link easily stopped her sword with the flat of his blade. To make a point he easily pushed aside her weapon and slid closer to kick her stomach, stopping his foot just before actually hitting her.

“Your size is a disadvantage against me,” he hissed. “Try  _ harder _ .”

After the shock of being bested by someone so much smaller than herself, Dunma grinned and took another swipe at him. He parried again without much trouble, but this time he seemed pleased by her effort and nodded in approval. Three or four times more he let Dunma attack him, then without warning he started counterattacking. She was forced to either avoid his blade or stop it. At first she tried only to dodge, clearly still worried about hurting him. Link reacted to that by being more aggressive, nearly slashing her exposed skin as if this were a real fight rather than some training.

“_Try_ _harder_!” he snarled at her, taking a defensive position again. “Hit me if you _can_!”

A few of the other knights sniggered, one at least whispering that he could have done better than Seggin’s star student. With her pride on the line, Dunma attacked again. Link countered her but she copied his earlier move and pushed his weapon with the flat of her blade before thrusting it to the side of his neck.

Link grinned, the first smile Sidon had ever seen on him.

“That was pretty good, Mipha,” he congratulated her.

“My name is Dunma actually,” she laughed, breathless from the effort. “But thank you! Another one?”

Link didn’t answer but his smile dropped. He stared at the young knight with wide eyes as if he were just seeing her for the first time, his face pale.

“I think that’s quite enough for now,” Sidon announced, trying not to stare at his fiancé’s trembling hands. “It was a delightful show, but I fear it is time for me to take lord Link back to his quarters. My lord, if you are ready?”

The hylian hero didn’t answer, but handed his sword to Dunma and strode away without another word. Sidon said some quick goodbye, congratulating Seggin once more on his froglets, before hurrying after his fiancé. Zora’s Domain was a maze and they couldn’t afford for the hero of Hyrule to get lost somewhere just because he stormed off on an impulse.

“Are you well?” Sidon asked when he finally caught up with the man. “You left rather fast.”

“I was done with the fight,” Link retorted, his fists clenched as if that might stop their trembling. “Anyway you were right, it was a bad idea. Zelda would be furious to know about this.”

So the queen and him were on a first name basis, Sidon noted, only to find himself silly for thinking that noteworthy. After what they had lived through, how could they not be?

“I won’t tell her if you don’t,” Sidon joked, unsure what else to say.

That did not get him a smile, but by then he was suspecting that the hero of Hyrule’s sense of humour had died long ago, if he ever had one.

“I must say, that was a rather impressive demonstration,” Sidon tried, hoping some honest flattery would help mollify the hero. “I had heard that you were a skilled fighter but I did not expect you to do so well against an adversary so much bigger than yourself.”

“Ganon was bigger.”

Sidon stopped on his track, unsure how to reply to that. To hear the name of Hyrule’s most ancient enemy spoken so flippantly was a shock, even several years later when most of the damage had been repaired. Few of the Guardians had reached Zorana in the few hours of devastation caused by the demon king, but those that did had brought death and destruction with them for a brief moment. Nobody liked to talk about that terrible day, least of all those who, like Sidon, had lost someone. 

Not that he had any right to scold Link or ask him to avoid using that name. If anyone was allowed to do that, it was the hero of Hyrule.

“Let’s return you to your quarters,” Sidon sighed, too tired now to keep trying to have a conversation with that man. “And tomorrow we could… actually, I might leave you alone tomorrow, unless there is something that interests you?”

The shrug he got as an answer was disappointing but not surprising. This time Sidon did not insist. Part of ruling was learning when to accept defeat.


	4. Chapter 4

In spite of the speed at which he had left the training grounds that day, Link returned there in the following days. He returned _alone_. Sidon only heard about it when Seggin mentioned that he had invited the hero of Hyrule to also join his more experienced knights for their training, so they too could profit from the teachings of an expert.

“Pains me to admit it, but that boy could probably give even Bazz a lesson,” Seggin grumbled. “I don’t know what sort of position you have in mind for him after the wedding, but I wouldn’t mind an assistant teacher.”

Sidon remained silent a second as he considered that offer. In all honesty, he hadn’t thought of any sort of official position for Link aside from being his consort, because the man had never shown interest in anything. Back in the days, Sidon’s mother had overseen trade and the various guilds of Zora’s Domain because she had a keen eye for sums and enjoyed accounting. Or some consorts had been more like Mipha’s husband, and took artisans under their fin to expand and repair the city. It usually happened naturally, through conversation, as new members of the royal family made their interests and skills known. But it was simply impossible to talk with Link.

“Ask him if that’s something he would like,” Sidon replied. “If that is something he wants, why not? But for now remind your knights to be careful. We’re leaving for the Marshlands in two weeks and I do not think queen Zelda will be happy to see her hero bruised.”

“I can tell them but _he_ won’t like it,” Seggin retorted. “The instant someone tries to go easy on him, he gets angry and forces them to fight seriously. I’ll say that much, I wouldn’t like to see him really pissed off.”

Neither did Sidon, though he personally was starting to feel a little annoyed.

“Well he’ll have to learn a consort cannot brawl like a common soldier,” he snapped. “If he creates problems, tell him those are my orders and that he has a choice between being careful or not being allowed to join your knights.”

Seggin agreed to pass the message, and next time Sidon saw Link, the hylian hero glared at him as if he had never seen anyone so despicable as his fiancé. Sidon pretended not to notice, but he couldn’t help being worried by that reaction to simply being asked _not to take risks_. He had thought initially that on that first day with the froglets Link had been overwhelmed by being in a fight again, that this was the reason for his trembling hands and sudden departure… but Sidon now wondered if instead the hero hadn’t enjoyed himself a little too much. 

_He kills bokoblins and eat their still warm flesh_, people said. _He murdered the sheikahs that were watching over him during his magical sleep. He was a mindless beast, hardly better than the one he had defeated._

Rumours and nothing more, and yet for such stories to have spread so fast after his awakening… Sidon had to wonder if there was some truth in those tales, if the hero of Hyrule was someone they could trust.

Not that Sidon had much thought to spare for his fiancé’s behaviour, because he was too busy actually organising the wedding. His father had insisted it ought to be celebrated in the Marshlands as a way to fully reclaim their own lands. A very pleasant idea, except it was a nightmare to organise. They had to find the right place, somewhere with a hylian settlement where the queen and her court could stay, but near enough a body of water suitable for the ceremony’s purposes. The Marshlands were wet, but there were only a few actual ponds large enough to use for a wedding. And then there was the matter of actually going there when most of the waterways had been abandoned or were never deep enough to easily swim through, especially not for someone of Dorephan’s stature.

Still, with some help, Sidon managed. There was a small lake right next to Goponga that would be perfect, with a still usable river leading to it, and a hylian road that followed that river. Dorephan would not be able to swim in waters so shallow, but properly installed in a special carriage he would travel in relative comfort. Finding horses strong enough to pull that carriage had been a problem, but nothing money couldn’t solve in the end. 

In fact this whole thing was going to cost a lot more than Sidon was truly comfortable with, since they had also hired half of Goponga town for the duration of the celebrations, and then there was food, accommodations, presents for the more important guests both hylian and zora… and that was on top of what they would need to spend to assess the real state of the Marshland after so many years of abandon by zoras and hylians, the infrastructures that would need to be rebuilt, the investments to support farmers and fishermen during their early days there… It would pay off one day, but not for many years and until then the Marshlands would be a severe drain on the kingdom’s finances.

Perhaps they had been a little hasty to accept that match, Sidon sometimes thought when he was tired. The Marshlands felt a little more like a poisoned gift with each passing day, and the hero of Hyrule was nothing but a rude and taciturn young man who had no curiosity for his new home. They should have known queen Zelda was too smart to make a deal that did not profit her.

Of course, those were thoughts he never actually voiced, born only from too little sleep and too much work. It was amazing to have the Marshlands back, for good this time, and as for the hero of Hyrule… well, at least he mostly kept to himself and did not bother anyone. It would have been worse to have someone who made active efforts to ruin Sidon’s life. Link’s dislike was of a quiet sort, and Sidon could easily live with that.

At last the day to depart for the Marshland arrived. It opened with a long stressful morning, Sidon helping his father and niece get inside the specially built carriage while Muzu and Seggin supervised the knights coming with them and the servants sent swimming ahead to the planned stop for the night. It had taken a lot of thought for everything to be organised, but in the end they had decided that Bazz would be in the carriage too, Link riding his horse near them since swimming wasn’t an option for him. The rest of Dorephan’s retinue and Sidon would be in the river, moving slow so they didn’t outrun the carriage and could intervene in case of problems. They had no reason to expect troubles, but it paid to stay careful.

To give a good impression as they prepared to leave the city, Sidon decided to check one last time that Link had understood how everything was set to be for the next three days.

His fiancé was by the carriage with his mare, a reddish beast with a striking white mane. The horse was his own, brought into Zora’s Domain at the same time as him and kept into the city’s only stable far from the palace. The Domain just wasn’t suited for horses, and zoras had little use for them except sometimes as beasts of burden. Sidon had been there once or twice at best, and never really thought about those animals.

It was immediately apparent to Sidon that Link saw his horse very differently. The usually cold hylian was cuddling his mount, pressing his face against her neck and scratching her fur. Sidon thought he even saw a smile on his fiancé’s face, though of course that disappeared as soon as Link spotted him.

“I wanted to let you know we are ready to go,” Sidon announced. “I hope you are too?”

Link shrugged, which seemed to be his answer to absolutely everything, and effortlessly jumped on the back of his horse. Sidon wondered if he was supposed to be impressed by that, because he was.

“Right. Well I’d better go tell everyone…”

“Who is that child with your father?” Link asked, motioning at the carriage.

“That would be my niece, Lutera,” Sidon explained, bracing himself for questions.

He _should_ have introduced Lutera to his fiancé, but there just hadn’t been the chance. Or rather, he’d made sure the chance wasn’t there. Lutera was still young and lived almost exclusively in the underwater part of the palace as was traditional, and of course Link could not easily go there. It was just an excuse though, and Sidon knew it. Lutera was more than old enough to be able to breathe air as easily as water. Dorephan has already told him many times that Lutera was asking about the hylian she had heard stories about and made it clear he was disappointed Sidon hadn’t organised an encounter yet, going so far as to threaten to handle the matter himself if this dragged on after the wedding.

He was right of course, but Sidon still found himself reluctant because, at the end of the day, Link was still a complete stranger.

A stranger who had seen Mipha die. Lutera couldn’t ignore that, everyone knew the story. Sidon himself had explained it to her shortly after it happened, because she wouldn’t stop asking when her mother would return and it had felt wrong to lie to her when already her father's fate had never been certain after the guardians' attack. There was no predicting how she would react to being in front of Link, nor what he would do if she started asking questions about it. Until he had a better understanding of the hylian’s mind, Sidon did not want to let these two talk.

“She looks like her mother,” Link only said before turning his attention back to his horse, patting her neck with the faintest hint of a smile on his lips.

When Link did not ask further questions about Lutera, Sidon quickly excused himself and joined the others in the water, angry at the hylian for not showing more curiosity about the child. Not that he wanted to tell Link about Lutera of course, but he felt hurt on Mipha’s behalf that her daughter held so little interest for a man who she had called a friend.

However much Sidon’s dislike for his fiancé grew, at least the journey itself was uneventful. They made progress at the planned speed, the weather was pleasant, cloudy enough that it did not get too hot in Dorephan’s carriage but still dry so the horses did not have to pull it through mud.

It wasn’t often that Sidon had a chance to leave Zora’s Domain, but he rather enjoyed the change of scenery. And unlike last time he’d left the Domain’s region, the occasion this time was a somewhat happy one. If he focused more on the Marshlands than on his fiancé, Sidon had no trouble feeling quite cheerful.

Except it wasn’t so easy to forget about Link. After all, the man was there with them, though every time they stopped it was painfully obvious that Link would rather have been anywhere else.

While everyone gathered at night, Link unsurprisingly kept to himself. Or more exactly, he stayed in the company of his horse, going so far as to dine with her rather than with the zoras. Sidon alternated between mounting annoyance and a certain relief that Lutera still didn’t have to be around the man who had witnessed her mother’s death. Besides, it wasn’t as if Link would have contributed much to the conversation, so he might as well stay with his horse for all Sidon cared.

“You should try talking to him,” Dorephan said on the second night as Link isolated himself again. “Invite him to join us.”

“Bazz already did, he refused.”

“Bazz isn’t the one marrying him in four days.”

That was a very unfair argument to use, and Sidon felt tempted to point out that Bazz had probably talked with Link more than him, what with them training together. He knew though that his father would not like that answer. Dorephan might have thought Sidon was not trying hard enough to make his fiancé feel at home with them.

Already knowing he would fail, Sidon walked to the spot where Link sat next to his horse, chewing on some dried meat. He barely looked up when Sidon approached, the prince apparently less interesting than his dinner.

“Father was wondering if perhaps you might want to be with us,” Sidon announced, smiling as kindly as he could. “I know perhaps rules of engagement are different among hylians, but my father really would enjoy a chance to talk with you.”

“I’m not a big talker,” Link muttered. “And I’m tired from riding all day,” he added with an affectionate pat at the chest of his horse.

“You seem to like that horse a lot,” Sidon noted, wondering at the bitterness in his own voice.

“She’s my best friend,” Link replied, unable to refrain a smile as he looked up at his mount, scratching her fur with the hand that hadn’t touched dried meat. “We’ve been through a lot, haven’t we girl? And she waited for me a long time.”

“What do you mean?”

Link’s smile fell and his hand stilled. “She was a present from king Rhoam when I pulled the sacred sword,” he explained, his voice flatter. “He told me I could have any horse I wanted in the royal stable. They said she was half wild and they were talking about sending her to a glue factory, but when I saw her I _knew_. Epona has been with me since then. Zelda says… _The queen_ says nobody else was able to mount her while I was asleep. She waited for me…”

He clenched his fists, trying to stop them from trembling.

“Zelda and her were the only one waiting for me when I woke up. Everyone else was gone.”

Link’s eyes fell to his feet a moment, before snapping up toward Sidon.

“I don’t think I’ve said that yet but. I’m so sorry for your loss. She… Mipha deserved better.”

There was something almost wild in Link’s eyes that made Sidon uncomfortable, and he found himself looking away.

“Thank you. Mipha did what she believed to be her duty,” he replied. “It’s supposed to be a comfort. Still even after years, I miss her dearly.”

He glanced at the hylian. Link’s eyes widened, making him look like a rabbit ready to bolt.

“Right. It’s been… four years? Five?”

“Six next fall,” Sidon mumbled.

Nearly six years for him, but a little under six months for Link, and for the first time Sidon wondered how old exactly his future husband was. Old enough to marry, sure, but was that before or after taking into account his years of sleep? He thought the hero was the same age as queen Zelda, but he wasn’t even sure of that. All he could remember was Mipha saying how young he was after she had met him the first time, while admitting most past heroes had been young too.

“I don’t think I’m in the mood for people tonight,” Link grunted, turning to face his horse.

“I’m sorry for your loss too,” Sidon said quickly. “I can’t imagine how hard this is for you.”

Again there was something in Link’s eyes that made him look like a wounded animal when he glanced at Sidon. Not a rabbit though. More like a boar or a wolf, something that became dangerous the more desperate it got. Something that could kill you even if you were trying to help.

“I’ll tell my father you are unwell,” Sidon offered. “Travelling can be quite exhausting, he’ll understand.”

Link nodded, his expression a little less feral. Calling that grateful would have been pushing it, but it was probably as close to that as the hylian hero would get. And anything that wasn’t indifference felt like a victory to Sidon.


	5. Chapter 5

At their arrival in Goponga Link was handed back to Queen Zelda and her court for the last preparations. Some information had passed between Sidon and her to decide what would be happening in this unconventional ceremony. It wasn't the first time a hylian married into the royal family, but never before had they had a title so extraordinary as _hero of Hyrule_. Zelda would have been within her right to ask for a hylian ceremony. Instead she insisted that Sidon still had the highest rank between the two of them and the wedding would be in the zora manner, with only a few concessions made to her as favours. 

Another oddity to add to a very long list. Sidon had agreed because it made things easier to organise for him, and gave Zorana a chance to show its power and wealth. He’d looked up some information on hylian weddings anyway, and they didn’t seem that different once the actual ceremony was over.

With Link delivered back to the hylians, the zoras went to their camp to rest from the journey and prepare for the following morning. Because Dorephan was of a size that did not allow for him to enter hylian buildings, Sidon had had a tall tent prepared for his father and him right outside of town, above a pool not far from the lake where the ceremony would take place. It was nowhere near as comfortable as their apartments in Zora’s Domain, but Sidon doubted that any hylian house could have felt as nice. It was nice and moist in their tent, they had a pleasant view of the Marshlands if they just parted the fabric, and someone had fished fresh glass eels for their dinner, a rare treat these days.

Sidon, Dorephan and Muzu reviewed one last time the program of the day to come, enjoying the small fish and some cider as they discussed what they’d need to do. Before long though the discussion devolved on the joys and pains of married life. Dorephan shared stories of the early days of his life with his late wife, some of which Sidon had never heard before. He had never known his mother used to sneak out of the palace to snack on river snails from a specific shop she liked. Apparently Dorephan had offered to buy them for her, from that exact shop, but she always refused because that wouldn’t have been as fun. It really was an odd thought. Sidon only remembered her as sickly and constantly tired because of the infection that after some years claimed her life, in spite of all their efforts.

Muzu too had tales of married life, though not his own. He’d never been interested in taking a spouse, but he had enough friends and relatives to know what that was like and to feel he wasn’t missing out on anything.

“Dangerous words to say in the presence of a groom to be,” Dorephan chuckled.

“Or comforting ones for a boy who knows he won’t be the first to go through this,” Muzu retorted, a little too seriously for Sidon’s comfort. “Not everyone has the same luck you or lady Mipha did, my liege.”

Sidon pretended he could not see the warning in his father’s eye, nor the defiance in Muzu’s. It had been a long day and perhaps they had drunk less reasonably than they should have.

“I think it’s time we all got some rest,” Dorephan decided. “Tomorrow will be another long day.”

Muzu bid them goodnight, clearly unimpressed by this attempt to silence him. Sidon couldn’t blame him, when the old man hadn’t said anything untrue, but he also understood why his father might not want to be hearing that right then. Dorephan looked rather concerned as he made himself comfortable in the water, inviting his son to come float near him. The water was too shallow for even Sidon to be in vertical position as would have been more resting, but he could deal with one night or two sleeping horizontally.

“I know things have not been easy with the hylian hero so far,” Dorephan said carefully, one large hand wrapping around his son to pull him into a hug, “but that doesn’t mean they cannot improve.”

“Even if it doesn’t improve, it’s fine,” Sidon muttered. “I don’t need to like him, father. So long as he doesn’t take arms against me, I can handle this.”

“A low standard to have, even for an arranged match.”

Sidon shrugged and closed his eyes to cut short to the conversation. Only time would tell how this union would go, and he’d rather get into it with as little hopes as possible, lest he be disappointed.

After too little sleep, Sidon and his father were awakened by attendants and prepared for the ceremony. The prince’s scales were rubbed in a fine salve so they would glisten in the light, and he brushed his teeth with a paste to brighten them. At the moment of putting on his ornaments, Sidon found himself hesitating as he realised he would no longer be wearing those after that day. He’d have to start wearing sapphire now instead of the turquoise he preferred, and to give up on using a number of his favourite collars, several of which had been presents from his mother and from Mipha. They’d have to sit useless in his rooms, gathering dust, since there weren’t many zora as big as him to whom he might have gifted them. 

Perhaps once Lutera had grown enough, if she took from their side rather than her father’s… And if not her, perhaps her own children, or someone else down the line. But Sidon would not wear them again except perhaps in private, or once he’d be a widower. Shaking away those grim thoughts, Sidon attached the silver jewelry on himself while the attendants did the same for his father.

Once the two of them were ready, they headed out toward the lake that had been chosen for the ceremony. Most of the zora delegation was already there, arranged on one side of the water, waiting for the hylians to arrive. Normally Dorephan should have been standing at his son’s side, but it would have been a strain on his spine to stand outside of water for so long, so he was sitting in his carriage instead, Lutera with him. Muzu would be the stand-in for the king in the few moments that would have required his participation, but right then he was chatting with Kapson. The priest seemed rather happy to be there, perhaps because his family originally lived in the Marshland. Or maybe he was just happy to have a royal wedding to celebrate.

Sidon wished he too could have chatted with someone to help his nerves. He did have Bazz standing behind him, in case the hylian somehow decided to create trouble, but Sidon did not particularly feel like talking to him at the moment. He’d have given anything to have his father at his side, or better yet Mipha. She would have teased him, certainly, but it would have made him forget his doubts.

“There they come,” Muzu muttered, coming to stand next to Sidon.

Looking ahead, Sidon discovered the zora party approaching. They were all on foot and keeping only to the road so their shoes and garments wouldn’t get dirtied, save for two on horse backs. One was Zelda, on a horse so white it was almost blinding, and the other Link on the red animal he loved so much. They both rode slightly ahead of the procession, but stopped before reaching the zoras to let the other hylians come take their places.

“Well that’s your last chance, your highness,” Bazz sniggered, just barely high enough for Sidon to hear. “If you start running I’ll cover you.”

“I chose to marry him,” Sidon retorted just a touch louder, staring at the approaching hylians. “I wouldn’t run even if I could.”

It was interesting to see hylians in their best attires. The women were as adorned in jewelry as zoras, while the men appeared to consider colourful fabrics and heavy furs to be enough decoration even for such an important occasion. As they all came closer Sidon saw some golden rings here and there on men, but never anything as lavish as what his own people wore, nor as elegant as the necklaces, earrings and tiaras of hylians women.

“That would be the Duke of Hateno,” Muzu whispered, discreetly pointing at a stern man standing on the first row. “The lady with him is your soon to be mother-in-law, and that child must be their youngest. I believe there’s a girl too, but she doesn’t appear to be here.”

Sidon inspected the hylian couple. Link appeared to take more after his mother, she clearly gave him her blond hair and nose, but it was hard to compare the burly Duke of Hateno to his much thinner and smaller son. They had the same cold, distant blue eyes, but that was as much resemblance as Sidon could find. Then again, perhaps to hylian eyes the similarities would have been more obvious.

Once all the hylians had taken their place, queen Zelda and the hero of Hyrule got off their horses. The animals were taken away by servants while the pair walked toward the lake, arm in arm. 

So It was Zelda who would give Link away. It struck Sidon as odd. The hero’s parents were there, on the first line. Even with this being primarily a political alliance, Link's father should have been involved somehow, being a major political force of Hyrule.

Unless he did not want to, Sidon realise when he glanced at the man to find him scowling. _You know your father_, Zelda had told Link on the day of the engagement, after insisting how safe Zorana would be for him. Hyrule was as bad a nest of intrigue as ever, and Sidon wondered if trade had really been the queen’s motivation for this union.

A problem for later (there were starting to be _many_ problems for later. Sidon was in no hurry to see them become problems for _now_) 

The hylian queen stopped just short of the water, taking Link’s hand in hers.

“We, queen Zelda of Hyrule, have the honour of giving away this son of Hyrule to the zora,” she recited, squeezing the hero’s hand a second before dropping it in Sidon’s. “May he be treated by his new people with kindness, for he is a bridge between our countries.”

“I receive him as one of us,” Sidon replied, closing his fingers around Link’s hand, surprised to find it so warm. “Welcome, Link of Hyrule, to the royal family of Zorana.”

Sidon smiled as warmly as he could, but Link did not return it. In fact the hero entirely refused to look at him, instead giving the impression that he might bolt like a deer if given the chance. It didn’t seem likely he actually would do something that stupid, but just in case Sidon squeezed that small hand tight.

The next part of the ceremony was something of a blur for Sidon. Most of it was an atrociously long speech by Kapson that spoke of Hylia’s kindness, of their kingdoms prosperity, and of their many duties to each other. Sidon almost grimaced when the priest started speaking about owing each other affection and support, quite certain the hero of Hyrule was capable of neither.

“Let the water wash away your early lives,” Kapson proclaimed, walking backward to a deeper part of the lake and motioning for the new couple to follow him.

They did as ordered, stopping only when water reached Link’s chin. Sidon knelt next to his fiancé, still holding onto his hand. With little warning Kapson pushed both their heads underwater, reciting a somewhat abridged version of the traditional blessing that would finalize their union. It had needed to be shortened so Link wouldn’t right out drown during the ceremony, but even this version appeared almost too long for the hylian who was starting to struggle when Kapson finally released them.

“Under the eyes of Goddess and mortals alike, let it be known you belong to one another,” Kapson proclaimed, ignoring the way Link gasped for breath, clinging to Sidon’s hand as if he might drop underwater without that support. “Let us rejoice for the newlyweds!”

In the middle of warm applause, Sidon and Link returned to dry land. It was another departure from the norm, but with the way the hylian was already shaking, Sidon was glad Muzu and him had decided for this small change.

“We have prepared something for you to change into,” Sidon explained, pointing at a folding screen near Dorephan’s carriage. “We’ll proceed with the rest once you are warm and dry.”

“Thanks,” Link mumbled, squeezing Sidon’s hand before running to get changed.

He reappeared only a few minutes later, dressed in a gorgeous blue tunic with white embroidery that queen Zelda had provided. It had been one of the queen’s imperative demands that Link wear this during the wedding, and Sidon had thought it would be seen more after the lake.

Whatever the reasons for Zelda’s insistence, her choice was a good one. That was a rather fetching look on Link, and it matched well with the queen’s own dress. A most beautiful shade of blue, though Sidon couldn’t shake the impression he had seen something similar before.

With Link no longer in danger of hypothermia, the ceremony resumed. From inside the carriage Dorephan handed down a silver box to Muzu who opened it in front of the newlyweds to reveal the silver and sapphire collars that would now mark their status as married people. Sidon took the smaller of the two and bent down to tie it around Link’s neck. It really was small though, so he struggled a little with closing it, especially with the hylian’s hair in the way. He had to push them aside to close the clasp and for a brief instant Sidon noticed a green ring on the hylian’s ear, small and thin enough to be entirely hidden in his hair. A little decoration to celebrate the special occasion perhaps, though why he would have chosen something so invisible was beyond Sidon’s comprehension.

Once Link was adorned with his new jewelry, Sidon knelt down so his husband could remove his old collar and put on the sapphire one. It was an unpleasantly intimate gesture, if he had to be honest, but at least Link managed the clasps more easily than Sidon had. Once that was done Sidon rose under renewed applause.

For better or for worse, there was no changing their minds now.

After the ceremony was over, a great banquet was organised in and around the Mayor’s house. The building itself served as a base of operation for an army of cooks and servants, while in its courtyard had been brought as many tables as could be spared in the small town. It had then been decorated with flower chains and ice statues so exquisitely created that they might as well have been alive.

Again Dorephan found himself forced to remain in his carriage by the table of honour, but so long as enough food and drink was handed to him he did not mind. A few times some venerable hylians climbed them to talk with him, old friends glad for a chance to catch up after what had sometimes been a literal lifetime for the hylians. Sidon was glad his father still managed to have fun, though he wished he could have someone to talk to. The only other two people sitting with him were Link, distant as ever, and Zelda on the other side of the hero who quite honestly was hardly good company either. It was a long day.

At least the hired entertainment was good. There were many performers, gerudo dancers, hylian musicians, some rito acrobats... No rito singers though. Zelda had made a polite yet firm demand on that front, pretexting it awakened bad memories for her. After the debacle at the engagement feast, Sidon wouldn't have hired any, but it was interesting to see how deep her dislike ran. Mipha had mentioned troubles with the rito champion in the early days. That boy had eventually gotten over the worst of his vanity and anger over time, but perhaps Zelda hadn't been as forgiving as the others. 

After some hours of food and shows, Zelda rose from her seat to encourage the hylian guests to come present their gifts to the newlyweds, something zora usually did in private, after the ceremony. Sidon couldn’t help but feel embarrassed as servants carrying heavy chests started approaching their table. 

The first salve of gifts was coming from Link’s father. The man rose up from his seat and presented himself before the young couple. On his signal, servants opened three chests filled with gold and gems, as well as a full set of armour and some weapons.

“A gift to you, my son,” the Duke said coldly. “May you serve your new home as you served Hyrule.”

It took Zelda pushing him gently for Link to rise up and walk to his father, before giving him the most impersonal hug Sidon had ever witnessed.

“Thank you. I am very grateful for your… generosity, father,” Link claimed with a smile that looked like a wolf baring his teeth, before looking toward the rest of the hylians “May I also thank mother and my brother?”

“Young Link is not at ease with strangers, it’s better if he stay where he is.”

“I can walk to them, father.”

“And what are you but a stranger to him?” the Duke retorted in the tone of a man used to having his commands obeyed. “Leave him be. But if you’re going to pretend you care about the well being of your family, I suppose I should tell you Aryll and her husband send their good wishes. Of course in her state she could not travel, especially at such short notice.”

Link smiled again, a little less feral this time.

“I would not have expected it of her, father. I… we will make sure to send her gifts when the child is born.”

That ‘we’ was rather unwelcome. Whatever feud there was between father and son, Sidon would rather have been left out of. And yet since they’re married now, Link’s problems are his problems. Perhaps he should have tried to ask more about Link’s familial situation. Not that the hylian would have answered, but Sidon would have had a better right to feel tricked.

With this glacial exchange over, Link returned to his seat. His father did the same, his attention on the gifts another nobleman was bringing. That time it was colorful fabric that glistened in the light. Another one brought silver, a clear attempt to please the zora assembly. Overall the young couple found themselves with more precious metals than they could wear in a lifetime (most of which they would regift, Sidon knew how to play this game) and more fabric than owned by all of Zora’s Domain population. 

Most of that fabric was actually a present from queen Zelda herself, which she claimed to be a full trousseau for her hero, so he would have something to remember Hyrule by. For that at least Sidon was grateful, because trying to have Link’s new apartments furnished in hylian fashion had been a struggle, and nobody had been really sure how many bedsheets the new consort would need or whether carpets and curtains really were essential to the wellbeing of hylians. Sidon also appreciated the elegant craftsmanship of the wooden chests in which that trousseau came, boxes big enough for a hylian to sit on and delicately engraved with Hyrule’s eagle and the royal family’s triforce, surrounded by geometrical elements.

“A good way to get rid of this,” Link muttered when Zelda left the table to give orders so the many presents would be sent toward the zora camp.

“What do you mean?” Sidon asked. 

“Pretty sure that was her trousseau. Only royals use the triforce as decoration. I guess she doesn’t feel like getting married for now.”

“Well, she’s still young. She has time.”

Link shrugged and watched as Zelda went to order for dancing music to be played. A hylian tradition, though some younger zoras quickly asked to have the steps explains to them and joined in. One zora knight was even bold enough to offer himself as queen Zelda’s partner, which she accepted with little hesitation. Considering how some of the older hylian noblemen gaped at that, Sidon suspected she had agreed only to shock them.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” Sidon sighed as he watched the dancers. As he understood it, reaching this part of the celebration meant the newlyweds and most older people would soon be free to retire for the night even as the party went on. He could have easily stayed up a while longer, but his father had been sitting up far longer than he normally did.

“Could have been worse,” Link grunted, his gaze wandering to the table where his family was sitting. “Could have been better.”

“I think I misheard your brother’s name,” Sidon noted, looking at the blond child falling asleep in his mother’s arms

“You did not,” Link hissed, impatiently drumming his fingers on the table. “_Link of Hateno_, born not two years after the fight. In fifty years, what hylian would have remembered the Duke of Hateno was not, in fact, the _exact_ Link who defeated Ganon?” He grimaced. “I guess I ruined that by not actually dying.”

No matter how cold the Duke had been earlier, that felt like a stretch to Sidon. The sheikahs had said from the start that the hero of Hyrule was deeply wounded but not dead and he would be healed after a period of time. Five years had been rather more than everyone had expected, but surely it was too short a period for a father to give up on his son and scheme to replace him. The child’s name must have been a way to honour Link… but why try to honour him that way if the Duke still thought him alive?

“Would you enjoy dancing perhaps?” Sidon suggested, trying to distract himself from that cynical train of thought.

He was more than half relieved when the hylian shook his head. He liked watching other dance in the hylian manner but rarely participated himself because his size made it rather awkward. It was less of a problem underwater, though it wouldn’t be something he could ever share with his husband.

“I don’t mind if you dance with someone else,” Sidon insisted as Link continued to tap his fingers on the table. “At least one of us should have fun.”

“What, you’re _not_ having fun?”

Sidon couldn’t help a grimace. “No more than you I suspect. These parties aren’t too interesting without someone to talk to.”

It occured to Sidon, a little late, that this was a rude remark to make to his new husband. Link did not appear troubled by the implication that he wasn’t worth chatting with, so he likely shared that sentiment. In this at least they were well matched.

Still, Sidon did not like the ever increasing tension he could see rise in Link, nor the way he kept glancing around as if he thought something might come and attack him. However unpleasant this day was for both of them, it did not need to be such a torture.

“Would you mind following me somewhere?” Sidon asked, grabbing an apple from a plate. “I have an idea that you might like.”

“I’m sure people will get the wrong idea if we sneak out somewhere,” Link retorted with a grimace.

“They can think what they want, we are married. And consider this: you can follow me for something I’m nearly sure you will enjoy, or you can stay here and look at people having more fun than you.”

That got Sidon a glare. Still after a glance at the ongoing party, Link sighed and stood from his chair.

“Fine. Let’s do that fun thing.”

Nobody stopped them as they left, though Zelda did look intrigued. At least, Sidon had to assume that was curiosity on her face as they passed near her, but she said nothing and continued dancing. Sidon had to pause a second to ask a servant where to find what he needed, careful to keep his voice low enough Link would not hear it. Once he had that answer they went on, Link looking more suspicious by the minute but refusing to bother asking a question. 

Link’s frown relaxed when they arrived in front of the stables, replaced by mild curiosity as Sidon handed him the apple he’d grabbed earlier.

“You said your horse is dear to you, didn’t you?” Sidon asked with a grin. “It would be unkind if your best friend didn’t get to celebrate with us.”

With some hesitation, Link took the apple and presented it to his mount. The animal bit into it without waiting.

“Thanks,” Link said at last, pressing himself against the side of his horse and looking relaxed for the first time that day. “I guess I did need a friend today.”

“I’m glad that I could help,” Sidon replied. “I don’t think anyone will come looking for us here, so stay with her a moment. I wish I could let you stay the night with your friend, but I’ll have to go back and help my father retire for the night.”

Without waiting for an answer, Sidon left the stable and went to sit outside. Link looked like he needed time alone and quite frankly, so did the prince after that too long day.


	6. Chapter 6

It was a relief to return to the comfort of Zora’s Domain after nearly a week of festivities, and find again the quiet of the palace. Or rather, if not the quiet, at least a form of activity Sidon was more comfortable with. There were doleances to be read and answered, Laflat had left in his office the first result of her research on the uses they had for the Marshlands before they became contested, fissures had been discovered on Inogo bridge which meant artisans would need to be hired to assess the damage and repair it. Sidon had plenty to keep himself busy.

Not all his time could be dedicated to work though. Almost every day since they were back in Zora’s Domain, Link and him had to entertain noble zoras who needed to congratulate them on their marriage and bring them presents. If Sidon were honest it was rather similar to the procession of hylian nobles on the day of their wedding, though at least this was done in private and thus was a little less showy. Most of the gifts were jewelry, but there were also some decorations for their respective apartments and, for some reason several saddles for Link’s horse.

“Is it some hylian tradition they are trying to respect?” Sidon asked him after the third saddle. “If so I am sorry for not giving you one, I had never heard of this.”

“If it’s a tradition then no one told me about it,” Link replied, dropping his cold attitude for mild bafflement as he inspected the saddle. “Maybe they just didn’t know what to get me?”

That was actually an option, considering that Link could not reasonably be gifted anything that a zora consort would normally receive. It was well known that hylian noblemen often kept several horses and would spend enormous amount of money to raise and equip them, so perhaps that was the reason for such presents. 

“Well, I’m sure Epona will look very fetching with this on,” Sidon said.

“I might go to the stable tomorrow and try it on,” Link agreed, a faint smile on his lips at the thought of time spent with his four legged friend.

He always did seem so happy when he spoke about that horse, and for that reason Sidon almost wanted to change his own plans. Only the thought of his father’s disappointment made him talk again.

“I’m afraid that will not be possible,” Sidon sighed. “It has been brought to my attention that you still haven’t been formally introduced to Lutera, and she has been asking about you. Her nurse asked for a day off tomorrow and I thought it would be a good occasion to finally organise an encounter. Would that be agreeable to you?”

Link’s posture answered that question before his voice could. The hylian went stiff, his hands clenched on the saddle.

“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” he hissed. “Fine. I’ll do this.”

“She’s a good kid,” Sidon said, irritated that meeting Lutera was treated by his husband like an ordeal. “I think if you give her a chance, you’ll like her.”

The only answer he got was that annoying shrug once again. It had been an irritating gesture before, but since Sidon had seen how affectionate that damn hylian could be with his horse, it made him furious. It wasn’t that like _ couldn’t _ care about the zoras around him. He _ chose _not to care.

At least, once they finished receiving presents and congratulations, Sidon wouldn’t need to be around his husband outside of public celebrations and the occasional official function. That couldn’t come soon enough.

Dorephan hadn’t exaggerated all those times he told Sidon that Lutera desperately wanted to meet Link. When the prince went to pick up his niece and told her that they would go see her new uncle, she shrieked in delight and swam in circles around him for a few minutes. Sidon wondered how he would explain things to her when that new uncle would treat her as coldly as he did everyone.

In an effort to make Link a little more comfortable, Sidon had suggested they did this in the hylian’s lodgings. That meant Link would be in an environement he controlled, but also that if things went badly and needed to be cut short, Sidon would have the excuse that Lutera was still a little young to stay very long away from water.

When they arrived at his door, Link opened it for them and welcomed them like the perfect host he pretended to be. He pointed for them the drinks and snacks he'd ordered for their visit, more charming than Sidon had ever seen him. He then squatted down to put himself at Lutera’s and held out his hand toward her with a gentle smile.

“I’m Link, nice to meet you.”

All of her excitement gone now that she really was in front of a stranger, Lutera looked up at Sidon and clung to him, staring at Link’s hand as if it were a poisonous snail.

“Sorry, I guess zoras don’t do that?” Link said with a patience Sidon had not expected. “It’s a hylian tradition. When we meet someone for the first time, we shake their hand. It’s fine if you don’t want to.”

Lutera shook her head, still clinging to her uncle.

“You’re tiny,” she accused in a small voice. “I thought you would be big! I thought you were a hero!”

For a second, Sidon saw Link freeze as he did every time something upset him. This time, instead of cutting short to the conversation and leaving, Link smiled wider.

“I’m a hylian, we’re a little shorter than zoras,” he explained. “And I wouldn’t call myself a hero, but I’ve always tried my best to help the people around me… even if I’m not very tall.”

Comforted by that answer but not fully convinced yet, Lutera let go of Sidon’s leg.

“Grampa says you were friend with my mama.”

This time Link’s wince was strong enough that even the child noticed it, huddling close to Sidon again. It took a little longer for Link to make himself smile once more, but Sidon was impressed to even see him try.

“I knew her,” Link admitted, though he sounded unsure of that. “She was someone very brave and very kind. A real hero for sure.”

If Sidon found it odd that his husband sounded as if he were reciting a lesson, Lutera was delighted by the news. All she needed to know was that Link was a friend of her mother and she could trust him, so she jumped in his arms. Surprisingly he not push her away nor did he protest, instead hugging her almost as awkwardly as he had done with his father during the wedding.

“I don’t know a lot about zora children,” Link confessed when Lutera finally released him. “You’re the first one I’ve ever met, so I’m counting on you to teach me all the things you like. Would you mind that?”

“Grampa says I need to try and be quiet with you,” Lutera said, clearly very tempted by Link’s demand. “He says you don’t speak a lot and I need to be a good girl.”

With an unexpected sense of theater, Link tapped pouted and tapped his index against his cheek, making a show of the fact he had to consider this new information.

“It’s true I don’t like to speak,” he said at last, smiling again. “It makes me pretty good at listening though, so unless I ask you to stop, I think you can talk as much as you want.”

That was a risky offer to make, as Sidon knew. His niece was at an age where she loved the sound of her voice, like all children did, and she was delighted to have a new audience. To his credit, Link looked genuinely interested as the little girl explained how she was learning to swim faster, how long she could stay out of water now that she was nearly fifteen, the name and habits of an eel she’d started taming, her favourite fish to eat, and plenty more things.

Sidon had never seen his husband go through a full conversation without at some point tuning out and ignoring whoever was talking to him, but with Lutera he made efforts to stay focused. He even asked her questions sometimes, not minding one bit when it led to another long winded story about a pretty, shiny rock she had found once, and how she’d given it to her best friend who in return gifted her with a very tasty piece of algae.

“Now it’s your turn”, Lutera decided when she finally ran out of topics. “Tell me a story about mama, uncle! She was really brave, right? And, and she was _ beautiful _too, right?”

“She was wonderful,” Link agreed, his lips twitching from the effort of keeping his smile on. “I’m not sure I can tell you any story about her though. You probably already know them all.”

“Tell me when you first met her!” Lutera insisted. “Nobody told me that because there weren’t there.”

It was a simple enough request, and something Sidon too would have liked to hear about. Mipha had told them her side of the story when she’d finally been free to return home after a few weeks, but it would have been nice to know what sort of a first impression his sister had made on the man she had died protecting.

A very simple request, and yet it was enough to break Link’s smile for good. The hylian’s face was as pale as a zora’s chest and his hands started trembling so bad that, again, even Lutera could notice it. She let go of him and stepped back to look at him.

“Are you okay, uncle?”

“I think I’m a little sick,” Link mumbled with a twisted grimace on his face that might have tried to be a smile. “Ate some apples earlier and maybe they’d gone bad!” he added, forcing himself to laugh. “Do you mind if I ask you and your uncle Sidon to leave me for now? I really don’t feel well.”

“Of course we’ll let you rest,” Sidon answered before Lutera could protest. “There will be other times anyway,” he told his pouting niece as he picked her up. “Link is family now, you’ll have plenty of chances to see him.”

Supposing Link showed any inclination for that, he didn’t add. It seemed Link’s cheer had been only a comedy after all, no matter how genuine he’d looked as he listened to Lutera, and one he couldn’t even keep up for long. At least he’d tried though, and Sidon supposed he’d have to be content with that.

“Yes, I’d love to spend time with you again,” Link said with a pained smile. “Maybe next time we can do it somewhere else, so you show me how fast you swim! And I’ll be more careful not to eat anything bad, I swear.”

He sounded sincere enough that Sidon wondered if Link really was just unwell. That, or he was a better actor than expected… which was unlikely, or he’d have put on a show at their wedding too, wouldn’t he? As he left with Lutera in his arms, Sidon promised himself he return later to check on his husband. It wouldn’t do to have the hero of Hyrule die of food poisoning.

After a nice day spent with Lutera, Sidon handed her back to her nurse. He had to promise the little girl that she’d see her new uncle again, and that she’d see him soon. Hopefully, it was something Link would tolerate. Who knew with him though. That damn unpredictable hylian… 

Still, since Link had looked truly unwell earlier, Sidon decided to treat that as a real problem. He didn’t know much about hylian sicknesses, but Mako the palace’s healer had read up on the subject since the engagement had been decided and he was able to put together something that, according to him, should at least help Link rest more easily. It was a hot broth of sorts that Sidon had to carry in a teapot which he promised to return later.

By the time he reached Link’s apartments, the pot was a little cooler. Sidon assumed that had to be desired anyway. Hylian ate hot food, but sure that would have been too hot to safely ingest? He could only hope Link would not get annoyed at being given a lukewarm drink. Ready to face indifference or annoyance, Sidon knocked on the door. It didn’t take long for it to open.

“What do you want?” Link asked, a small grimace on his lips. Annoyance it was then.

“You were unwell earlier, I thought you might profit from some medicine,” Sidon explained, lifting the teapot. “Mako said it was a mixture of camomile and fennel, to calm an upset stomach and help you sleep until you’re better.”

Link sighed and rolled his eyes and… yes, of course, _ there _was that shrug again. Sidon was tempted to ask Muzu to give his husband some lessons in manners. He was a lord’s son, how had he been allowed to go on this long being this rude? Even in private with his father Sidon would never had _dared_ to behave this way.

“May I come in and pour you some?” Sidon insisted, making a show of how polite he could be, even to someone who did little to deserve it.

Again Link rolled his eyes, but he still moved aside to let Sidon in. In the parlour, the prince put the teapot down on table and started looking for a cup in which to serve the medicine.

“Where did those apples that you ate come from?” Sidon asked as he opened a cupboard to grab a tiny and delicate little porcelain cup, one of their wedding presents. “I can ask for this to be investigated, it’s not normal that fruit should make you ill. If they were spoiled or…”

“Don’t play stupid,” Link cut him. “You _ know _it’s not something I ate.”

“I had my doubts actually. You are a more gifted actor than I thought.”

Even without looking, Sidon knew Link had shrugged again. He ignored that to pour some medicine in the cup and handed it to his husband.

“I suppose I ought to be grateful you at least tried to be civil to Lutera,” Sidon said as Link took the cup and sat on a chair. “She liked you a lot.”

“I liked her too,” Link replied, sounding earnest again. That man should have been a tragedian, not a hero. “She’s a nice kid. I _ meant _it about wanting to spend time with her again. I just didn’t want to talk about her mother.”

That was a legitimate concern, all things considered. Sidon regretted not discussing that with Link before the meeting.

“She knows Mipha is dead,” he explained. “She understands her mother is never coming home again. That’s why she asked about her. You would please her immensely if you told her about Mipha. New stories of her mother, and coming from you oh all people? I can’t imagine anything making her happier.”

Link’s hands tightened on his cup.

“That’s not happening.”

“Why not? You don’t have to describe her mother’s death!” Sidon pointed out. “That fight was only a short part of your acquaintance with my sister. Surely you have some anecdotes to share? Anything at all would do. Your first meeting, a joke she told you… I refuse to believe you can’t think of a single thing you might share with a grieving orphan about her mother!”

The cup made a tinkling sound as Link firmly put it down on the table.

“I cannot say anything,” he hissed. “So please, tell your niece that she shouldn’t ask questions about that, not to me. Zelda doesn’t want me to talk about this.”

“You don’t take orders from her anymore,” Sidon retorted. “You’re a subject of my father now, not a servant of the queen of Hyrule!”

“I might have agreed to marry you, and if your father gives me any _ other _ order I’ll obey,” Link said coldly. “But she’s my _ queen _and I’ll respect her desires over yours. If she wants me to be silent, I will be.”

“Then do as you wish I supposed!” Sidon snarled, grabbing the teapot in a furious gesture. “I’ll do my best to explain to Lutera that she must respect your silence. Please do show some understanding if she forgets.”

Glaring at Sidon, Link shrugged. That was _ it _. Sidon was going to check with Muzu so his husband was taught how to behave in polite company, because he refused to bear with that sort of attitude for another sixty years. At best, it might make Link slightly less difficult to have around. At worst… Sidon had suffered through enough of Muzu’s lessons to know just how demanding a teacher he could be, and to be certain he wouldn’t tolerate Link’s bad attitude.

“I bid you goodnight, husband,” Sidon said, not even bothering to smile anymore. “I’ll see you some other day, I suppose.”

“It can’t be avoided,” Link agreed. “Goodnight to you too.”

It took all of Sidon’s carefully learned self control to not slam the door on his way out. He couldn’t give that damn hylian the satisfaction of having actually angered him, and he couldn’t let anyone know that already, this union was going worse than anyone expected.


	7. Chapter 7

It had been at least a month since Sidon had spent any significant amount of time in the company of his husband, for which he was more than glad. He only vaguely knew what Link was up to these days, and only because Muzu insisted on keeping him updated. Apparently the hero of Hyrule still spent most of his days on the training grounds, either with Seggin’s knights or working on his own. He also infrequently saw Lutera when her nurse took her to him, and there were no more mystery indigestions now that the little girl had been asked to avoid talking about her mother. She seemed to believe that Link missed Mipha too much to speak of her, and felt very sorry for him. 

Sidon didn’t have the heart to say otherwise, especially when even adults seemed to have convinced themselves of the same thing. Muzu, who had followed Sidon’s suggestion of teaching some zora etiquette, had told the prince he couldn’t help but pity the hylian who seemed so deeply affected by the loss of the princess that he wouldn’t even _say_ his name if he could avoid it.

Good for Link if his bad attitude was seen as grief, but it still annoyed Sidon. _He_ had been there to deal with the aftermath of the fight with Ganon, the loss of their future queen, the grieving, the reconstruction effort, and no one would have let him get away with even half the bad humour Link showed everyone.

Not that Sidon thought much of his so charming husband. The Marshlands had been given to him by his father to supervise, both a reward for getting married and as a test of his administrative capacities. Now that all the fuss about his union to Link was starting to fall down, Sidon was free to make something productive of his time and carefully study why, exactly, everyone had been so intent on owning those marshes in the first place. With the help of Laflat, the royal historian, and of Muzu whenever he could be spared, Sidon had done intensive research on their old territories. 

What he’d found out was that they were amazing fishing grounds with many species found nowhere else. They also seemed to be useful to grow a number of crops such as rice in some areas, and berries, and it was for this purpose the hylians had wanted them so badly. That was not directly of interest to zoras, though if it could give them more trading power with the other races, it could be worth considering… so long as it didn’t disturb the local fish too much, and that they firmly controlled just how many hylians they allowed to farm those lands. Aggressive immigration policies from Hyrule was how the Marshlands had become contested in the past, and Sidon didn’t want for that to happen again. Especially where there already were hylians living there, mostly around the borders.

Sidon knew some members of his father’s council were in favour of relocating them, or even right out sending them back to Hyrule. The idea wasn’t without merit, but such a policy would be sure to create problems for both Zorana and Hyrule, since those hylians had lived there for several generations now. Besides, they knew the area well and could be of great help while zoras surveyed it. And then those surveys needed to be prepared of course…

Truth be told, Sidon was enjoying this work. It was demanding and forced him to consult a number of specialists, but there was something exhilarating about handling this on his own, without his father’s supervision. Of course he knew Muzu would step in and warn Dorephan if he did anything too obviously stupid, but Sidon still felt free to do as he wished.

At least, until one morning where Muzu came to one of their meetings and brought Link with him.

“What a surprise,” Sidon greeted them with a forced smile as he let them enter his office. “I must confess I did not expect to see you today, Link. Did we have an appointment I forgot?”

“I invited him,” Muzu explained. “I thought we could profit from a hylian’s point of view on these matters.”

“That should certainly be interesting,” Sidon replied.

His tone must have been more bitter than he intended to, which granted him a warning glare from Muzu. Meanwhile, Link’s total indifference and the way he flopped on a chair and proceeded to ignore the two zoras was _not_ remarked upon.

Once Muzu started showing Sidon some documents he had obtained from Zelda’s minister of trade, the zoras too stopped paying attention to Link. Some of those papers were evaluations of the number of hylians currently living on their lands, as well as tax revenues and their estimated production of rice, since that was what most of them grew for a living. They started comparing that with their own old records of animal population to check which settlements could be allowed to remain where they were and which might need to be moved. 

“We’ll see what actual surveys tell us, but I have good hope most can be left alone,” Sidon decided after a while. “Except maybe this one, on Samasa Plain. If we reopen that water way, maybe the salmons will return.”

“It’s worth a try,” Muzu conceded. “Where would we put them though? It’s not a small village, we can’t just add them to another settlement.”

A fair point, so Sidon peered at his map again, trying to look for a spot that might do the trick.

“How about Rabia plain? There’s no existing settlement so that limits the risks of conflicts, but the geography is similar enough that they probably still could cultivate rice, couldn’t they?”

Muzu looked at the map, clearly unsure. They’d read as much as they could both of them, but growing plants the hylian way was still confusing at best.

“I suppose it’s…”

“It’s stupid,” Link cut them. “Can’t either of you read a map?”

“I think we can do that just as well as you do,” Sidon retorted before he remembered Muzu _wanted_ the hylian’s opinion, however rudely formulated. “But please, explain our error.”

Rolling his eyes, Link pointed at each ot the two locations. “Samasa is lower down the Rutala river, it has higher elevation, and with that dam they built there, they’re never bothered by floods. Rabia though? It’s shit. Look, it’s a least 200 meters lower, and it looks exactly like the sort of place that’s underwater every spring.”

Link looked at the two zoras, who stared at him, waiting for him to finish.

“No hylian will want to move there,” he explained with a sigh. “Not if they’re used to being dry all year long. If you want to move them there, you’ll need to build a new dam, or at the very least some dikes to protect the villagers and their cultures. Because guess what, floods are also bad for the rice, and the Rutala river is out of control every spring.”

Sidon looked at his husband, then at the map in front of them. There were a lot of little squiggly lines on it which he knew were supposed to represent height variation, but he hadn’t realised just how precise the system was because, on the whole, zoras didn’t map that sort of things. Their maps were mostly for underwater caverns, where it was more important to be aware of currents and their strength than exactly how high everything was.

“I see Muzu was right to ask for your help,” Sidon had to admit. “So where would you move these people then?”

The prince expected a petulant answer as if it would be obvious to Link, or perhaps a return to his usual indifference. Instead the hylian peered again at the map, biting his bottom lip as he studied it, following some lines with a finger only to shake his head every time.

“I can’t tell you that from just a map,” Link sighed. “It this one still accurate anyway? It shows the Samasa dam but that looks like it was drawn afterwards. To be honest though, no matter where you send them it’ll create problems. Making them restart a new settlement from scratch is rough. I don’t know for zoras, but in Hyrule that’s something of a punishment. You know, like exile.”

“We do that for some crimes,” Sidon replied. “It’s an individual punishment though. Nobody would inflict that upon an entire village.”

“Hyrule would. You think the people who first settled into the Marshlands chose to?” Link sneered, a grim smile on his lips.

That was something Sidon had never thought about, though Muzu did not appear quite as shocked as him. Of course Muzu’s own father had been councillor to Sidon’s grandfather when the hylian started contesting the ownership of those territories, so he would have heard a lot about that.

“They will likely resent us for moving them again,” Muzu said, staring at the map. “But I agree with his majesty, we would greatly profit from letting the Rutala flow freely to the ocean once more. Perhaps if we could find ways to encourage them to move on their own… We’ll have to look into that, with your help of course, lord Link.”

“Yes, your opinion would be most valuable,” Sidon agreed. “You are far more knowledgeable on these matters than I expected, Link.”

For a second, the hylian looked confused, as if he hadn’t expected himself to know that much either.

“I am a Duke’s first born son,” Link said with some uncertainty. “My father made sure I was trained to take over after his death. That’s not happening anymore,” he added, more confidently, “but I’m sure he’d be _ delighted _to know the money spent on my preceptors wasn’t an entire waste.”

It was not something Sidon would admit out loud, but he sometimes nearly forgot that his husband had been someone of importance even before being chosen by Hylia to fight in her name. His behaviour was that of an uneducated mercenary rather than what befit a peer of Hyrule… except when he could be bothered to show he was smart, apparently.

Not that he bothered much more after that, because Muzu and Sidon started talking about how to best take down the Samasa Dam and who to consult for that entreprise. Link, quite obviously, was a lot less interested now that the conversation shifted to a topic on which he knew nothing, so he flopped back onto his chair and proceeded to ignore them once more. Sidon thought he saw his ears twitch a few times, and caught his husband glancing their ways sometimes as if he were actually listening. Perhaps the hylian was more curious than he was willing to admit, or perhaps he was just bored and trying to guess how much longer he’d be forced to sit with them.

Luckily for Link, both zoras had to attend the King’s council that afternoon, and he was soon enough released from from the meeting.

“I’ll let you make your way back to your lodgings,” Muzu told Link as they all left Sidon’s office. “But I was thinking you might be willing to join us again for our next little chat about the Marshlands. If his majesty agrees, of course. This is your responsibility my prince, I would not force you to accept unwanted help.”

That was a very polite lie, but a lie nonetheless. Sidon could tell how _ very _disappointed Muzu would be if he refused, and how rude it would be to tell Link his assistance wasn’t required, right to his face. Well, irritating as it was, Link might be of some use, if only because Sidon didn’t know much about hylians and how they lived, if he had to be perfectly honest. 

“Of course, I would love for Lord Link to give us any and all insight he might have,” Sidon replied. “If he can spare some time for this.”

Sidon expected a shrug as always, but instead Link rolled his eyes. Was annoyance progress over indifference? A question the zora was sure he’d have the chance to answer in the coming months.

“I’d be glad to have something to do,” Link retorted dryly. “You’ll just have to bring me up to date with the decisions you’ve made so far. _ If _you’ve made any decisions?”

“We can meet here again tomorrow and I’ll share everything with you,” Sidon offered. “Or if you prefer I will send Laflat to explain to you if your schedule doesn’t allow…”

“You _ know _my schedule allows,” Link snapped. Muzu coughed and the hylian rolled his eyes again but forced himself to smile. “And I’d rather hear it from you, thanks. I would be delighted for this chance to work together. Can I go now?”

The question was directed at Muzu rather than Sidon, but the old man at least had the courtesy of looking at his prince, as if Sidon were in charge of whatever was happening.

“I will see you tomorrow, lord Link.”

This time the hylian shrugged, before dashing away as if just one more second spent in their company would have been torture. The sentiment was rather mutual for Sidon, although Muzu just chuckled at this appalling behaviour they wouldn’t have tolerated in Lutera.

“He’s a wary little fellow, but I think he’ll be happy to give a hand,” Muzu said as they started walking toward the throne room. “We just need to make him understand our court isn’t nearly as vicious as the hylian one.”

Sidon shrugged, then winced when he realised what he had done. Wonderful. Apparently, bad manners were contagious. Thankfully, Muzu laughed at his gesture.

“Yes, he does that a lot, doesn’t he? I think he went a little wild when he was left to train unsupervised with the champions and forgot how to behave in polite company.”

“He’s a duke’s son, he should know better,” Sidon complained.

“He’s a hero, they’re allowed some eccentricities. Be patient with him, my prince. In time he’ll make a fine consort for you.”

That sounded unlikely, but Sidon knew better than to protest. He’d argued in favour of this match, he’d wanted this alliance for Zorana, and if he complained too much Muzu would surely remind him that he could only blame himself for having such a husband.

“We’ll see about that,” Sidon sighed. “For now, do you know what the main point of today’s council should be?”

Muzu had the kindness to allow for that change in the conversation, and explained the different topics Dorephan intended to discuss that week. Most of it sounded rather dull, but at this point Sidon welcomed a bit of boredom.


	8. Chapter 8

In the end, working with Link wasn’t as unbearable as Sidon had first feared. The main reason for this was that the hylian was, on the whole, not terribly invested in the fate of the Marshland and thus left him alone. Link spent most meetings he attended reading various reports or old tomes half his size while apparently ignoring everything the zoras around him had to say. Sometimes Sidon wondered if Link really was reading at all, or if this was just an excuse he’d found to not pay attention… but that was just mean spirited on his end and Sidon knew it.

Because when he did feel like speaking, Link usually had interesting insights to offer. Even though they had all read the same files and heard the same heads of guilds give their opinion, Link often came to very different conclusions than the zoras. He would never let them downplay the importance of the hylian community now under their responsibility, using numbers and trade volumes that he had obtained Hylia knew how to support his claims.

Sidon took notes of all his arguments and repeated them at his father’s council to justify his decision to allow hylians to remain in the Marshlands as their subjects. He tried at first to mention that these ideas came from Link, who wasn’t allowed at the council, but he gave up when he realised how even some of the more moderate councillors accused Link of being partial to his own kind. The exact same arguments, presented as coming only for Sidon and Muzu’s own research, always worked just fine.

“I am most sorry that I appear to be appropriating your words,” Sidon once apologized to his husband. “I am hopeful that in a few years, when everything is sorted out, they can be made to acknowledge your contributions more easily.”

Link shrugged at that, but with perhaps less bad humour than usual.

“Politics. And they’re not wrong, I could be biased.”

“But you’re not. I’ve had Laflat and her assistants double check things, everything you’ve said was true.”

“So _ you _don’t trust me either,” Link noted. He should have been angry, but instead there was an unusual lightness to his tone that might have passed as amusement.

“You’ve told me yourself your loyalty goes to _ Zelda _,” Sidon retorted, “not Zorana. I’d be a fool not to have some doubts when you say things that could profit her.”

Such an accusation should have been taken as an insult. In truth, perhaps it was meant as one. Still Link only huffed and rolled his eyes, clearly unconcerned by his own lack of loyalty towards his new home. That only made it clearer to Sidon that all they were doing was just a distraction for Link, something he’d been forced to do but held no stakes for him. They were all giving their best to make a better world, and that damn hylian just couldn't bring himself to _care_.

Perhaps that conversation was why Sidon found himself still holding some resentment when he next met with Link and Laflat to discuss the Marshlands. Or perhaps it was the subject of that particular meeting that put him in a cross mood to begin with. They had started comparing the last proper field surveys conducted by zoras to study wildlife population to the most recent ones documents they had from king Rhoam’s early reign some forty years earlier, and things did not look good. Several species had stopped being mentioned, while others that were essential to the food chain were noted to be treated as pests which the hylians aimed to eliminate entirely.

So much of the wealth of the Marshlands had been lost with those apparent extinctions, and they couldn’t know yet about the state of the flora which the hylians had not taken note of. All of that made it look as though Sidon had traded his freedom for ruined lands, and it did not make him feel particularly well inclined towards the hylian population that now fell under his power… for which Link’s obvious lack of interest as he read something unrelated did not help.

“We’ll have to see about those animals they’re keeping as pets,” Sidon noted as he put down one very depressing survey of the animals counted in one village by tax officials. “I know horses can’t be avoided, but dogs might need to be restricted if they present a risk for local wildlife. And I keep seeing mentions of ducks… I understand the need for meat but perhaps a less devastating species could be encouraged.”

“We can see about that,” Laflat replied.

“No we can’t,” Link interrupted from behind his book. “If you think you can take those ducks away, you have a surprise coming.”

Sidon clicked his tongue, annoyed that only _ now _his husband was choosing to join the conversation. And of course it would be the subject of tamed animals that drew him in. Hylians did love their pets too much, and Link was worse than most.

“I can understand it will be hard getting over traditional attachment to these birds,” Sidon conceded with a forced smile, “but it is _necessary_. Ducks are a risk for many fish eggs and larvae, not to mention they can ravage plants. Hylians will need to rely on the wild population if they want meat that badly, but the tamed one will need to be drastically reduced in numbers. I imagine this might at first cause some issues for families that rely on them for added income, but they can surely be replaced by…”

“They can’t be replaced,” Link cut him, firmly closing his book and glaring at his husband. “They’re not pets. They’re not even just a source of food. They’re valued workers.”

Laflat couldn’t help a chuckle at the thought, while Sidon stared at the hylian and wondered if the man really was as mad as everyone said.

“They’re birds. _ Animals _ . They don’t _ work _.”

Link bit his lip and closed his eyes. “They are,” he proclaimed, his voice slow and hesitant. “You can’t grow rice without them because… because they eat parasites and weeds!” he said triumphantly, opening his eyes again. “My grandfather tried to do without them for some years but it doubled the work needed and made it much harder too. And then the rice wasn’t as good because ducks also provide fertilizer.”

Sidon and Laflat exchanged a look. It was one thing to listen to Link when he did research on a subject and sounded confident, but this felt a little too odd to be taken seriously. The hylian had seemed so unsure why his people even cared so much about ducks, until he _conveniently_ remembered this story about their use.

“I suppose we can look into that,” Sidon replied. “But I think we can all agree that there must be better ways to do things. Laflat, please see what you can find on this. Perhaps the sheikahs can come up with better alternatives? I know they have very skilled chemists who…”

Link rose from his chair, face red in anger.

“You’d rather let the sheikahs contaminate water and land than to let hylians continue their traditional way of growing rice?”

“Why not? I hear they’ve gotten great results with wheat in Tabantha.”

Link slammed his fist on the table. “I didn’t save the world for you to let the sheikahs destroy it! Ducks work, they’ve _ always _worked, and they don’t hurt anyone!”

“Saving the world doesn’t give you ownership of it,” Sidon snarled. “And hylian traditions haven’t exactly always brought good to the world! It is also your people’s tradition to wage war against your neighbours and steal their lands. In fact, that is how I found myself forced to marry you to reclaim what should have been ours anyway! But of course, it is that tradition that allowed your family to rise to power. Perhaps you wouldn’t be opposed to some new wars, for the sake of _ tradition _?”

As he said these words, Sidon saw all colour drain from Link’s face. The deathly pale hylian glared at him, his hands clenched in tight fists, and for a moment Sidon wondered if his husband was going to attack him.

“Fuck you,” Link hissed instead. “And fuck your Marshlands. I was just trying to help but you know what? Let the sheikahs ruin them if you like. I’ve done my part in destroying Ganon, what happens now isn’t my problem, as you said.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“No, you’re too bloody _ polite _to dare that, aren’t you? Wouldn’t want to make daddy angry. At least, that proves that court life is the same everywhere, and I’m not playing that sort of games. So have a good day, husband dearest. I’m done trying to help.”

Grabbing his book, Link strode to the door which he slammed behind him with unexpected strength. For a moment Sidon didn’t know what to do except stare at that door and wonder how many people would have heard that outburst. The temper that hylian had was simply awful, and if he didn’t learn to control himself a little…

Next to Sidon, Laflat coughed, and he winced. Even if no one outside had heard why Link had caused such a scene, Laflat had and she did not look too happy with her prince.

“Do you wish to adjourn so you can… perhaps talk to him about this?” she asked.

“I am not going to apologise,” Sidon retorted. “I did nothing wrong and he needs to understand not everyone is going to bow to him just because he’s a hero.”

Laflat nodded, then tapped her cheek. “You make a point I suppose, your highness. Now, don’t go thinking I’m taking his defence because I’m as mystified as you are by his love for ducks but… I suppose if anyone knows of the adverse effects of working with the sheikahs, it would be him. They were very involved in the preparations against Ganon so he’s seen more of their work than most of us, hasn’t he?”

“I suppose, but…”

“And then they are the one who kept him alive these past five years. I can’t help but feel that if he resents them, he might have reasons to do so.”

That was a fair point, more so than Sidon would have liked to admit. To be honest, even Mipha had sometimes struggled to find something kind to say about the sheikahs in charge of the Divine Beasts. She had found them too willing to experiment, too eager to push the champions to their limits. She had laughed it off of course, because she was Mipha and always wanted to see the best in people. It was just their way to make sure that everything was ready for their great fight, she’d say, but considering how things had turned out perhaps she should have followed her instinct and distrusted them a little more.

They hadn’t even had her body to give back to the waters. Devoured by Ganon’s magic, the sheikahs had claimed, taking the Divine Beasts Hylia only knew where, before anyone could even go there and pay their respects to the courageous champions they had lost. Before Sidon could see the place his sister had died.

Still without the sheikahs and their inventions, there would have been no one left alive to cry over Mipha.

“Link is an odd man, and I won’t base myself on his judgement to condemn anyone,” Sidon replied. “He is impetuous enough that…”

“You haven’t exactly been a paragon of patience yourself,” Laflat cut him. “It might not be my place to say so, but I doubt you would have spoken so harshly if lord Muzu had been with us.”

Sidon grimaced. “You are annoyingly right today.”

“People in your position need to be annoyed into behaving sometimes,” Laflat said with a smug smile. “I am only doing what lord Muzu would do if he were here. Besides, you were rude to him.”

“So was he.”

“My, my, I did not know you had decided to behave like a hylian to make him more comfortable,” Laflat scoffed. “He said something rude, so do you, and in two months you’ll be hiring an assassin to free you, like they used to do in the days of king Rhoam? I might have to warn lord Muzu so he can help you. I’m not even sure we’ve had a killer for hire in Zorana since the days of Ganon’s first attack.”

Sidon groaned. Laflat wasn’t wrong, that wasn’t a zora way of behaving. Sure Link wasn’t zora and it made it oddly tempting to get angry at him, who didn’t realise how impolite Sidon was every time he snapped or showed disrespect… but that didn’t make his actions any less reprehensible. Most of Link’s rudeness came from ignorance or from being raised in a different culture. Some was also sheer actual bad temper and indifference, but Sidon should have known better than to let that get to him. He was a prince of Zorana, he had to be an example of politeness and good manners for his people, and that included being a little nicer to his annoying husband.

“Fine, I’ll apologise to him,” Sidon sighed. “Can you keep this incident to yourself? I’d rather avoid a lecture from my father.”

“If you can convince Lord Link to resume helping us with the Marshlands, I’ll keep quiet,” Laflat promised. “I’m not doing this to be a pest, you know,” she added, a little more subdued. “But with the anniversary coming, the two of you are going to be under intense scrutiny. It will give a terrible impression if it is too obvious how little the two of you get along, and that will not help what we’re trying to do in the Marshlands. Cooperation must start with your marriage.”

“Muzu should watch out, you’ll come for his job someday.”

“Why do you think he so often assign me to work with you?” Laflat beamed. “That is exactly his plan, your majesty.”

That got another grimace out of Sidon, though a playful one this time. He hoped Muzu would stay in place for many more years, but when the day came for the old man to step down, Sidon wouldn’t mind if Laflat replaced him.

For all his determination to make his amends to Link, Sidon found himself hesitating when he arrived at his husband’s lodgings. It was easy to promise to be civil when Link wasn’t there, but the very thought of talking to him, of having to apologise, was… irritating. After all, if the hylian hadn’t gotten so angry about _ducks_ of all things…

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Sidon forced a smile on his lips and knocked on the door. There was no answer and he hoped for a moment that Link hadn’t returned there after their argument, that he might have a little more time before he had to speak to the hylian. But when he knocked again, just for the sake of telling himself he really had tried, the door was opened by a rather angry looking Link.

“What do you want now?”

Another deep breath, and Sidon widened his smile. “I was hoping we could talk? I realise I was rather rude to you and…”

“I’ve heard worse,” Link cut him with a shrug. “And I don’t care. We tried working together, it was a bad idea, let’s leave it at that.”

“That other people were rude to you doesn’t excuse the way I treated you,” Sidon protested, forcing his way into Link's lodgings. “I realise that hylians are different, but zoras find great value in good manners and… if I’m honest, the way I have treated you is probably worse than you, a hylian, might realise.”

Link sighed, and closed the door behind Sidon.

“Are you calling me stupid?”

“No. I am saying… you knew Mipha. Have you ever seen her angry, even at someone you suspected she disliked?”

Link pinched his lips and with only the briefest of hesitations, shook his head.

“That’s because my sister was everything a polite zora ought to be. We put value in being kind even to those who have harmed us. I should never have allowed myself to lose my temper with you.”

“Why? You’re supposed to only get angry at people in their back?”

“It is considered very childish to let your grievances be known to _ anyone _but very close friends and family.”

Link frowned at that. “That doesn’t leave you many people to rant to, does it?”

“In general, it is…”

“I meant _ you _in particular,” Link cut him, something in his face softening for a moment. “You’re trying to convince your father that you have no regrets about marrying me and he’s your only family, right? And I don’t think I’ve heard you mention close friends.”

“The two of us haven’t exactly talked a lot,” Sidon retorted, before taking a deep breath. “Sorry. You are right, I do not have many friends. I used to, but things have been different since losing my sister and I have been… rather too busy for these things.”

Not to mention that before this champion business, Mipha had been his closest friend… but he’d lost her long before she died, to this group of strangers from which only Link and Zelda survived.

“It’s hard to be at the center of attention,” Link sighed. He brought one hand up and, after a second of hesitation, tapped Sidon’s arm in a gesture of comfort. “I’m not exactly blameless in what happened earlier. Let’s make a deal: I’m going to make an effort to not piss you off so much, and in exchange if you get angry you come here and privately tell me exactly how annoying you think I am.”

“I just told you that it would be…”

“If you don’t yell, nobody will know. And I promise you, whatever you’ll have against me, I’ve heard far worse.”

That was a more tempting offer than it should have been. The only other option to complain about Link was Laflat, and while Sidon would have trusted her to hear his dislike of just about anyone else, he couldn’t be sure that with Link in particular she wouldn’t let Dorephan know how unhappy he was with this match. And he couldn’t have his father know, not when this had been his own choice.

“I suppose we could do that,” Sidon agreed. “If nothing else, it might help you see when your behaviour is a problem by zora standards. I had asked Muzu to teach you that, but I suppose he hasn’t had much time.”

“He’s tried. I just couldn’t be bothered. Court life is… not what I prefer,” Link explained with a grimace. “I will make more of an effort though. This is my life now, I need to get used to it. Just don’t expect me to ever be like _ you _.”

That you was said with a tone of total disgust, as if being Sidon was the worst thing Link could have ever conceived.

“For the record, _ that _was a rude remark,” the prince noted. “And I suspect it would have been by hylian standards too. I know I haven’t been as nice to you as I might have been, but…”

“No, it’s the opposite. You’re too nice,” Link explained, rolling his eyes. “Look at you, trying to be all _ smiling _even now when you’ve just admitted you can’t stand me. I bet you’d be smiling like that even if you were stabbing me in the back.”

“I would never!”

Link chuckled at Sidon’s horror.

“Listen. You don’t like me, and I don’t particularly like you either. I know your type. You’ve said before that you don’t trust me because I’m loyal to Zelda? Well I don’t trust _ you _ because I am pretty sure the instant it’s politically interesting for you, you’ll find a way to get rid of me and you’ll still be _smiling_ as you do it and saying you’re so _ sorry _ to be rude that way… but you’ll _ do _it. I know how people like you are: I was raised by one.”

Sidon thought back of Link’s father, that man who gave his youngest child the name of his dying son. It still was hard to think Link was right in accusing his father of scheming to have his young son take the place of the one who almost died fighting Ganon, but he could easily imagine Link believing it to be true. Hyrule’s nobles weren’t known for their kindness, and betrayals even within a single family weren’t unheard of.

“Things do not work this way here,” Sidon insisted.

Link shrugged, unimpressed by that declaration. “If you’re just going to tell me that sort of stupid lies, you can go. I have better things to do.”

“Actually, I do have one more thing to ask. If I promise to keep my temper in check, will you still work with us on the Marshlands? I will not pretend I enjoy your ideas, but if nothing else that helps me know on what points hylians will be… harder to deal with.”

“Ducks stay, I stay.”

“That’s not a decision I can make at the moment, but I will consider that option, at least.”

Link grimaced at that answer, though he did not look surprised. With a sigh, he held out his hand toward Sidon.

“Fine, I’ll take that much,” he said, keeping his hand held up a moment before rolling his eyes. “You’re supposed to take my hand and shake it. That’s how you make a deal with… wow, you’ve really never met many hylians, have you?”

“I am rather certain that none of our deals with queen Zelda or king Rhoam were sealed in this manner,” Sidon protested as he gingerly took Link’s hand. The warm skin of the hylian was odd against his own, and Link squeezed his hand with surprising strength.

“I guess that’s not how kings and princes do it. But I’m just a stupid warrior, so I don’t care.”

Warrior perhaps but _ stupid _certainly not, Sidon almost protested, before thinking better of it. With everyone already bending to his every whim and allowing him to do whatever he pleased, there was no need to further feed Link’s sense of his own importance.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for some mentions of violence toward the end of the chapter

“No, we can’t have lord Kero near the rito delegation,” Sidon said as he glanced over the sitting arrangement for the evening feast. “He’s held a grudge against them for over two centuries. His fiancée left him for a rito.”

“A smart woman,” Laflat replied, moving the paper that held the lord’s name. “With the gorons perhaps? Surely even he can’t dislike them?”

“That man can dislike anyone. But yes, we can try that.”

Laflat placed the paper at the goron’s table, and Sidon sighed. One elder down, still half a dozen more to take care of.

The anniversary of the battle against Ganon was never his favourite celebration to organise to begin with, but that year the preparations were even more stressful than usual because they’d decided to invite a number of prestigious guests. Well, _ decided _was perhaps an exaggeration. It had been very strongly hinted to them by several ambassadors that since Link had finally awoken and was living in Zorana, it would be very appreciated if representatives of the four other nations that had contributed to the fight were present.

From the goron they would have champion Daruk’s son Yunobo (a nice young man, Sidon had met him at the funeral ceremony in Hyrule’s Castle Town), from the rito a warrior named Teba (a relative of the late Revali, or maybe just a friend… rito family structures could be complicated), from the gerudo they would greet young Lady Riju, the daughter of the new chief (a sweet girl. She’d been at that ceremony in Hyrule, a child heartbroken at the loss of her aunt), and as for the hylians… queen Zelda had already informed them that she could not excuse herself from the celebrations happening in her own kingdom, but she was sending one of her ministers as well as some of the sheikahs who had helped with the Beasts.

That meant a lot of important people to accommodate for, a lot of different cultures to take into account, and a lot of trouble should anything go wrong.

While preparing for that celebration, Sidon had to put the Marshland aside for a while. He honestly did not mind that, because it was still rather awkward being around Link now that he had realised how improper his behaviour had been toward the hylian. Knowing that Link didn’t care, that he apparently was used to this sort of bad temper… that only made it worse. Queen Zelda had told her knight that he’d be safe in Zorana and while Sidon shouldn’t even have heard _ that _, he did not want to make a liar out of her. So far, the easiest way to deal with Link was to avoid him.

Not that this was entirely possible, of course.

“Did you talk to Lord Link about his role during the celebration?” Laflat asked for the third time that week. “Lord Muzu really can’t manage to get anything out of him and we need to know what sort of involvement we can expect from him.”

“I haven’t found time yet. Maybe you should try…”

“I have, your majesty. In fact, and with all due respect, several members of the staff have tried to approach him on the subject, because I know you’re hardly his favourite person in the Domain.”

“Does he even like anyone here?”

Laflat rolled her eyes. “I like to think I get along with him rather decently. He also seems to be on good terms with Dumna, and with captain Bazz and his brigade. Perhaps you too should try training with him.”

“I doubt he’d agree to that,” Sidon retorted with a grimace. “He dislikes me too much for me to be comfortable letting him run at me with a sword.”

“Then you should at least go watch him train. He might be more open to conversation after that, too. And you could ask him what we can expect from his participation. I need to know, so we can help him prepare his speech.”

“I’ll try…”

“I’m making room in your schedule,” Laflat decided, checking her notes for Sidon’s obligations that day. “Yes, you have nothing this afternoon that I cannot handle without you, and I know he’ll be training with Seggin’s frogglets today. It’s perfect.”

Sidon forced himself to smile, and mentally cursed Laflat’s efficiency. There would be no avoiding this.

Seeing Link with Seggin’s young knights was a very different experience from what it had been just a few months before. That first time, the hylian had been rather cold as he instructed Dunma on how to better use this sword, but when Sidon arrived that afternoon, his husband was smiling at a joke Tottika was telling. Even when Seggin called them out for slacking and ordered them to get back to work, Link appeared more relaxed than Sidon had ever seen him before. He no longer smiled, sure, but there was no tension in his shoulders, something Sidon realised was always there during their meetings… though it returned the instant Link spotted him.

“Don’t mind me,” Sidon called out with a little hand wave. “I’m just here to watch, do as if I weren’t there.”

He looked around for a place to sit where he wouldn’t bother anyone. There was a bench on one side of the training ground that was perfect for that. Sidon sat down and looked toward the grounds, only to find Link had joined him and was glaring at him, arms crossed on his chest.

“What are you doing here?”

“Laflat thought it would be interesting for me to see you train. She seemed to believe it would help me understand you better.”

Link’s glare only got angrier, but he said nothing and returned to the frogglets.

Even with this new tension in his body, Link was still less worrying to watch as he fought than he had been on their first visit to Seggin. Sidon remembered feeling on edge and wondering at every moment if he needed to step in and stop what had been happening, but that wasn’t the case anymore. Link, however furious he was, seemed to be in better control of himself. Perhaps that had to do with the fact that none of the zoras he sparred with tried to coddle him. They all gave their best in spite of his smaller frame, even those twice as tall and large as him. They trusted him to stop their blows if needed, and rightfully so; Link always managed to parry their attacks if they might have hit, before congratulating them on their progress or offering advice for further improvement.

Perhaps _this_ was the job they should have goven him instead of dragging him into this Marshland mess, Sidon wondered. It had been suggested by Seggin that Link would be of great help in training the soldiers. In fact, the prince was surprised that Seggin had never brought that up again, even when Sidon had allowed him to ask Link if he wanted to do just that. Either Seggin had changed his mind, or Link had refused the offer. Why, though? Fighting was about the only thing he really seemed to care about. That and ducks. And his horse.

This man was a mystery, and Sidon wasn’t sure he’d ever understand him.

At the end of the training session, Sidon approached his husband and asked him if he could be allowed to walk him home. It was an innocent enough demand, formulated as politely as possible, and still Link glared at him as if he were more offended than those times Sidon had actually been rude to him.

“I suppose I can’t stop you,” the hylian hissed. “Fine, let’s go.”

“If you’d rather not…”

“I said let’s go. You want to talk, don’t you? I don’t want to listen, but let’s get this over with.”

It took all of Sidon’s self control not to reply that he wasn’t exactly thrilled either about that conversation they needed to have, but he managed to stay calm. He wouldn’t snap at Link again, and certainly not in public. 

They took their leave from Seggin and his froglets, and headed toward Link’s lodgings in silence. It had been Sidon’s plan to chat a little and gently ease the conversation toward the matter that truly interested him, but Link’s attitude made small talk impossible. By the time they reached the hylian’s door they still hadn’t shared a word, and Sidon half expected to be sent away without ever finding a chance to ask Link about the ceremony. Instead, the hylian invited him inside with a grimace.

“Let’s do this,” Link sighed as he closed the door behind them. “Tell me what you want to ask of me.”

“The same thing others have tried to ask you,” Sidon explained. “There is to be a ceremony to celebrate your victory against Ganon, and we want to know what you plan on doing to commemorate those who fell that day. We fully intend on respecting your intentions, whatever they are, we just need to know them so we can organise our own plans around that.”

Link shrugged and grabbed a grape from a plate that must have been left after his lunch, before collapsing on his sofa. 

“My intentions are simple. I don’t want any part in any of this. Leave me out of your little party, and I’ll be a happy man.”

Sidon blinked a few times. “Are you… saying you do not intend to participate? But that’s… why not? This should be your time of triumph!”

“Never asked for it.”

“Do you not realise how many people will be there to see you?” Sidon asked, too stunned for anger. “It is the first anniversary of the battle since you woke up, everyone will want to hear you talk about it!”

“Don’t want to,” Link retorted, biting ragefully into his grape.

Seeing his anger calmed the one slowly rising in Sidon, replacing it with pity. He so often forgot that for Link, that battle was still a fresh memory, as was the loss of his friends. He was young for a hylian, he’d gone through a lot and perhaps, just _perhaps_, that could sometimes excuse his behaviour.

“It doesn’t have to be about the battle,” Sidon offered. “I’m sure everyone would love to hear about your friendship with the Champions. People of all five nations will be there and to hear about those we lost, from you of all people… I cannot express what it would mean to us. I know it would mean the world to me. I still miss my sister.”

Every day, every moment he missed her, but she was gone now and all Sidon had left of her was a child who hadn’t had the chance to know her, and this hylian for whom she had died.

“I have nothing to say about them,” Link hissed, grabbing another grape and playing with it, squeezing it between his fingers but careful not to break the skin. “I’ll come and wave at people if I absolutely have to, but don’t expect me to say a damn word.”

“Why not? If it’s hard we can write the speech for you, Laflat is very skilled at this. Just talk to her, give her a few anecdotes and she’ll do the rest.”

“No.”

“Why not? Because Zelda ordered you to be silent? Because you can’t find a single kind thing to say about my sister and the others who gave their lives for you?”

“Because I don’t even fucking _ remember _your sister,” Link muttered as he squished the grape, his voice so low Sidon barely heard him.

Sidon stared at Link, refusing to accept what the hylian had just said. 

“What do you _ mean _you can’t remember about Mipha? You were her friend! Or did she matter so little to you?”

It was one thing to know Link despised everyone he met now, that no one but his damned _ horse _was worthy of his good opinion. But to think that Mipha, who had been so fond of the one she called her hylian little brother, might actually never had his affection either, that she’d given her life for someone who held her in no esteem…

“I think she mattered,” Link whispered after some hesitation, staring ahead of him. “She _ had _to. Zelda says she did.”

“Do you have to rely on your queen to know how you feel then?”

Link’s eyes snapped up toward Sidon, wide and terrified like a deer cornered by hounds.

“Yes.”

The answer was unexpected enough that Sidon couldn’t figure out what to reply. It was such a ridiculous thing to say after all, wasn’t it?

“She trusts you,” Link muttered, looking away once more. “Zelda. She _ trusts _you. And I’m not supposed to tell anyone but if she trusts you it’s fine, isn’t it?” He bit his lip, glancing at Sidon. “I don’t trust you. But she does and she knows better than me. Are you trustworthy?”

“I aim to be,” Sidon replied, more and more confused. “I can’t say I like that Zelda asked you to keep secrets from me, but I’m trying to make my peace with that. Unless it threatens Zorana, you don’t need to tell me anything.”

“It could. If my father knew…” Link chuckled joylessly. “Maybe you _ do _ need to know. In case it comes out someday. Even the sheikahs can be bought, and _ they _know.”

“Know what?”

“That I don’t remember a thing,” Link hissed. “Everything before the Shrine of Resurrection is gone. I… apparently, I died that day. Ganon, he... That story of us stabbing each other, that's bullshit. Zelda dealt the final blow, not me because I... I fell under his foot and he..." 

Chocking on words, Link grabbed a fruit. Staring right into Sidon's eyes he tapped one finger on the side of his head, then violently dropped his fist on the grape, squashing it and sending juice all over his hands and clothes.

"He... Your _ head _?" 

"I don't look it, eh?” Link retorted with a smirk. “The sheikahs did a good job for the outside. What's inside was tougher. Didn't even know my name when I woke up. All I knew was I had been fighting, so I attacked the poor sheikah watching over me. Five years asleep but I still managed to break his nose and one arm before they stopped me."

"So you really don't remember anything?" 

Link hesitated and brought one hand up to the small jade ring on his ear before dropping it with a grimace of disgust. 

"Nothing worth remembering," he spat. "I can still _ fight _. Zelda says that's probably because I was already training for that long before I got picked for this hero stuff. I remember getting Epona and... A few other things,” he mutters, shaking his head as if that might rid him of those memories. “It comes back to me sometimes. Not much about Mipha so far. I just know what Zelda told me."

For a moment Sidon stared at his husband, unsure how to react to this revelation. All he could think was that it explained a lot about Link’s behaviour, and made his own that much more appalling. He’d guessed that Link had been affected by that great fight against Ganon, but he’d never taken the time to ask how much, nor if he could help with that. He’d been too busy getting annoyed at that cold, emotionless man… but that had just been another sign that something was wrong. After how many times Mipha had told him about Link’s sense of humour, his _ warmth _, Sidon should have realised something was odd.

“Nobody can know,” Link sighed, cleaning his stained fingers on his tunic. “My father would… he’s not the kindest man around and Zelda was worried he’d try using me for political power if he learned I am… diminished. She had to come up with something to send me away from Hyrule, and since people were talking about you looking to get married, she thought it’d be a good way to protect me. I was… not that happy about it, but I trust her. Can’t remember much else, but I know that: I trust her more than I trust myself.”

It still was hard for Sidon to conceive of a father ready to use and manipulate his own child for power, but if Zelda had feared the Duke of Hateno enough that sending Link to marry a near stranger seemed the safer option… At least it meant she trusted him. Or more accurately, she trusted king Dorephan, who had been a strong ally of hers since she’d taken the throne.

“I’ll tell people that the loss is still too recent for you to speak about the champions,” Sidon offered. “I cannot make it so you don’t have to be present at the ceremonies we have planned, but I’ll make sure you are forced to participate more than is strictly necessary.”

“You’ll keep the secret?” Link asked, sounding so incredulous that Sidon felt insulted.

“Of course. I’m sorry I forced you to break your promise to Zelda, and I wouldn’t push you to perjure yourself more than that. I know I’ve given you little reason to trust me, but I like to think of myself as an honourable man.”

“Everyone thinks they are honourable. Even my father.”

“Well I’m not your father,” Sidon retorted. “Speaking of which, I think you should tell _ my _father. Ask your queen’s permission first if you must, but I think he deserves to know. I won't force you, and I won't tell him myself, but consider it.”

Mostly, Dorephan needed to know why his daughter’s friend treated them so coldly and never spoke of her. Sidon knew it pained his father, though he tried not to show it. It was hard on everyone who had loved Mipha and known how much she’d liked her hylian friend. Still, Sidon would protect Link’s secret if that mattered so much to him.

Link, of course, only shrugged at the suggestion. That was more or less what Sidon had expected anyway, so for once he wasn’t bothered by the gesture. With some more reassurances that he wouldn’t reveal the truth to anyone, the prince left, wondering how he would explain to Laflat that not only he’d failed to get Link to participate, but also that she was under no circumstances to bother the hylian with that again.

It was going to be another conversation he’d rather not have, but it couldn’t be avoided.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to winter being hard on me and making writing a bit difficult, updates might be a little irregular on this fic from now on.  
I'm still determined to continue this story though, so worry not! ;)


	10. Chapter 10

Weeks of preparing the festivities for Ganon’s defeat left Sidon both exhausted and delighted with the work he had accomplished. It was a real joy to see the delegations of the four other nations arrive at last and to greet those people who had come from so far. One after the other, the delegate had accepted his polite apologies that Link could not be there to greet them personally.

“It is a very hard time for him,” Sidon said each time. “I am sure you want to talk to him about our late champions, but I have to ask that you respect his silence if you find him unwilling to speak. Five years is a lot to catch up to, even for a man of such resilience.”

That explanation convinced most of the delegates. Yet when it was his turn to hear it, Teba, the rito representative, ruffled his feathers in a rather impolite display.

“I guess Zelda throwing him into a political marriage didn’t help,” he grunted, eyeing Sidon with what might have passed for open dislike, except the prince couldn’t imagine what he might have done to deserve that. “If she wanted to get rid of him that badly, she should have said.  _ We’d  _ have been happy to take him in, and without needing to be paid for it.”

“I am sorry if you feel slighted by my union to the hero of Hyrule,” Sidon replied as gently as he could, noting the rest of the rito delegation shook their heads at Teba’s words, but no one looked like they disagreed with him. “If you fear for his choice in this affair, I can promise you he has never struck me as a man who might be bullied into doing something he disagreed with.”

Teba huffed at that lie, as if he knew there wasn’t much Link wouldn’t have done for his queen. Before he could say anything more though, a colourful rito man at his side mentioned he was very tired from their long travel and that they all needed some rest before they could say anything regretful. That second rito, Kass, was a bard of high renown who personally represented at least three quarters of Teba’s self control, as Sidon had seen first hand during past anniversaries. By all rights Kass should have been the rito delegate, but rito valued martial power over diplomacy and for that reason Teba was the one to represent their Elder. Sidon wished they didn’t, because the very last thing he needed at the moment was to deal with  _ another  _ grumpy warrior who had decided to hate him for no reason.

The above water was packed full long before the ceremony began, and through the door Sidon could see a large crowd outside. Zoras mostly, but a fair number of hylians and gorons too, as well as the odd rito and gerudo. The four nation delegates, of course, had been seated right in front of the sacred pool, the best seats available. Behind them members of the king’s councils, then noble zoras, and then…

“You can go sit,” Dorephan told his son. “I think your husband saved you a seat.”

“I’d rather stay at your side until we’re ready to begin,” Sidon replied, looking up at his father who, for the time being, was sitting on a large chair. “Actually, if you want me to stay the whole time…”

“I’m not so old that I cannot go through a service without a crutch.Or are you so desperate to avoid your husband?”

“You know that’s not it, father,” Sidon muttered, looking down. “I worry for you.”

The king sighed, and patted his son’s fin, a crooked smile on his lips.

“I will be fine. Now go find Link, it’s almost time.”

Sidon too sighed, but he obeyed and went to find his place near his husband. For reasons known only to him, Link had chosen to wear that blue tunic he’d had on their wedding day, the one Zelda had so insisted on. Perhaps it held a special meaning to them. At the moment, Sidon could not have cared less about some hylians’ fashion choice, his eyes riveted on his father who slowly rose from his seat. 

It was always impressive to see king Dorephan standing, his stature so great that his head nearly brushed against the ceiling. Another few decades and it would for sure, Sidon knew. At least, that was the better alternative. None of the other possibilities bore consideration, and Sidon focused on the majesty of his father as he addressed the people gathered for this service in glory of Hylia, the gravitas of his deep voice, the elegance of his movement. If he hadn’t known about the true state of his health, Sidon would never have guessed the amount of pain just standing in open air was likely causing his father. It was a good reminder of the efforts the prince himself needed to put forth if he wanted to be worthy of his rank.

The service went on for a while, thanking Hylia for her blessings, praying that she welcomed those who had lost their lives to protect her dominion, begging that she continued acting as a conduit between the Holy Three and mortals. Dorephan conducted it all, assisted by Seggin when the ceremony called for it. After over two hours of this, Sidon stopped paying proper attention to the service and found himself watching his father with increasing worry. Dorephan was not letting it stop him, but he was now wincing at some movement, and his hands were shaking when Seggin handed him the Zora Sapphire for a renewed blessing.

“He doesn’t look so well,” Link whispered, leaning toward his husband.

“Hush, we don’t speak about that,” Sidon ordered in a murmur, trying to keep his voice calm. 

Of course Link would chose this moment to start paying attention at what went on around him. At least, the service was over soon after, leaving Dorephan free to sit down again, and Sidon found himself breathing a little more easily.

The lunch that followed this holy ceremony was frugal. Sidon saw several of their guests grimace at the bare plates put before them, as sometimes happened when foreigners participated in a zora ritual. 

“It’s our way to show devotion to Hylia,” he explained to little Riju when she came to him and politely explained that she was still rather hungry. “We call it a sacrificial meal and I’m afraid remaining hungry after  _ is  _ the point. It is how we demonstrate to her that we are ready to suffer for her.”

The girl grimaced, clearly unimpressed by this tradition. She was rather young anyway, and usually children were not forced to fast along adults, so Sidon was tempted to ask for more food to be brought to her. Before he could, Link came forward.

“It’s a metaphor of sorts,” the hylian explained with a kind smile. “The idea is that first you fast, as we are doing now, and it’s painful to remind us of the pain we keep feeling over the loved ones we lost. But tonight there will be food aplenty, and music too because in spite of everything, life goes on and those who loved us wouldn’t want to see us wallow in misery endlessly.”

Both Riju and Sidon stared a moment. Though she might have been the most surprised at finally hearing Link say anything, the young gerudo recovered first from her surprise and smiled at him.

“Thank you for that explanation. I’ll try my best to respect this custom.”

Now bearing a very serious expression, the girl returned to the other gerudo and appeared to share with them what she had learned. It seemed to appease them somewhat, making Sidon regret not telling their guests more about zora traditions.

“You know, that’s exactly how my sister explained this to me when I was little,” he told Link. “Did she…”

“I think she did,” Link said with a slight frown. “I think... we all talked about our ways to honour Hylia, and she told us this. Made us try it too. Zelda tried to sneak me some biscuits but I wanted to do this right because Mipha…”

He trailed off, closing his eyes tights and shaking his head as if to get rid of the memory.

“I think I wanted to make Mipha  _ proud _ ,” Link sighed, almost a whisper. “We all did. Even… we wanted to be as good as she thought we were, all of us.”

“She had that effect,” Sidon agreed, sighing too as he remembered how he had always hoped to be worthy of her trust. How she made him feel capable of being a great prince. How she was kind and funny and full of joy, even when she was working hard. “I miss her.”

“I think I do too, even like this.”

It was almost a comfort to hear that coming from Link. If Sidon knew one thing about his husband, it was that the hylian rarely bothered to lie when he could easily just refuse to speak, so surely he had to mean this. Mipha was gone but not forgotten, not even by a man who remembered nothing else.

After this (unsatisfactory to some) lunch, the day went on with more celebrations of the losses of that tragic day, six years earlier. What came next were speeches by the delegates of each nation about those who had been lost, and what had been gained. This particular tradition was not a zora one, but rather something that had naturally emerged when they had all gathered in Castle Town for the funeral of their champions. 

There was something very touching about young Riju solemnly speaking of the aunt she had barely known, alternating between tales of Lady Urbosa’s heroism and more touching scenes of their family life. Her eyes shone with unspilled tears as she finished talking before the gathered crowd, but with great dignity she did not let them flow until she was done and sat half hidden by her giant bodyguard.

Yunobo of the gorons had no such qualms. He cried from beginning to end as he told stories about his father’s kindness and generosity, how Daruk took pride in his role as champion as he did in everything he did.. 

“Sometimes he said he wasn’t sure what all this Ganon business was about, but he knew it was important,” the goron stammered, “and he knew it was dangerous, and he knew someone had to take care of it. And at times I wish it had been someone else to be picked, but he never had any doubts because it was the right thing to do… and he always wanted to do the right thing.”

That shy speech was saluted by subdued applause, some of which came from Link whose expression was unreadable. Sidon wondered if Yunobo’s regrets found an echo in his husband’s heart. Surely Link too must have wished another had been chosen to fight Ganon, especially with the way things had turned out? At least, Sidon knew he’d rather have seen someone other than his sister step inside Vah Ruta, though he would never tell anyone. It had been an honour for her to give her live this way, he could not be selfish and wish another had been given that prestigious task.

Once Yunobo had finished, Teba rose from his seat, his attitude a sharp contrast to the goron that spoke before him. He stood tall and straight, glaring at the assembly until his eyes fell upon Link and narrowed.

“I don’t have much to say,” Teba announced dryly. “Revali knew the risks, he took them, and even if he’s dead, he was victorious. I know he wouldn’t have any regrets about that choice, and he’d make it again without a second’s hesitation. I’m less sure he’d be too happy about what happened since he’s died…”

“Teba, not  _ now _ ,” Kass hissed warningly.

“I’m just saying some  _ relations  _ between our people aren’t what they should be,” Teba said with a shrug, still staring towards Link and Sidon. “We’ve all banded together against one enemy, and now some of us might as well be  _ strangers _ . Now I won’t say Revali cared much about politics and diplomacy because that’d be a lie, but he still hoped all our countries would be brought a little closer by our  _ alliance _ , and he wouldn’t like to see we’re back to making marriages in exchange for lands and making complicated treaties over everything. He believed in being direct and if that landed him in trouble more often than not, I think he wasn’t wrong in wishing there was a little more open honesty out there.”

Having said his piece, Teba sat down again only for Kass to angrily whisper at him, to which Teba replied on the same tone without a care for all the people trying to understand what was going on. Only one thing was clear, as far as Sidon was concerned: his marriage to Link didn’t appear to be very popular among the rito. Even Kass seemed annoyed by Teba’s timing more than by his actual words. 

While the two heads of the rito delegation continued their hushed argument, the other guests, recovered from that odd speech and looked around to find who would speak next.

As all eyes turned his way, Sidon rose from his seat. It did not escape his attention that there were many frowns in the assembly at the fact that it was  _ him  _ standing. He still put on a smile, and started the speech that Laflat and him had prepared about Mipha. He spoke of her courage, her determination, her kindness… and tried not to notice the fact that people still only looked at Link rather than him. He could not let that indifference affect him, not when it was natural that people were more interested in what the Hero of Hyrule might have said, had he been able to participate. Link was the one who had saved them all. His voice was what they wall wanted, not that of grief stricken relatives who could bring no new perspective on the events of that great battle. Sidon would have resented his hylian husband for the attention that was on him, but one glance at the man was enough to change his mind. Link sat straight on his chair, his gaze firmly in the distance, his attitude as cold as he’d been in the very early days of his time in Zora’s Domain, when Sidon couldn’t even get a word out of him. He looked like a man to be pitied, not envied.

When Sidon sat down, people continued staring his way.  _ Their  _ way. Before the prince could invite whoever else so desired to speak about their losses, one of the gorons stepped forward, one that looked ancient even by their specie’s standards and about as cheerful as a scorpionfish.

“I think I speak for everyone when I say I was hoping the hylian hero would say a few words,” the old goron said while behind him Yunobo looked mortified by the intervention, yet powerless to stop it. “He’s the entire reason we made that trip, isn’t he?”

Poor Yunobo gasped at the remark and stammered excuses of some sort, but Sidon noticed the rest of the gorons seemed more on the old man’s camp. The same could be said of the other delegations too: Riju and Teba were ill at ease with that sudden demand, but behind them and even among the hylians, Sidon saw only curiosity.

“I certainly hope that neighbourly friendship and the knowledge of a shared grief were equally important in your decision to come,” Sidon replied with all the warmth and good humour he could muster on such a day. “As I have explained when you arrived, it is not planned for the hylian champion to actively participate in ceremonies this year. Would you not agree it is kinder for now to let him see how his dear friends are not forgotten, that they will never be? I believe…”

“We want to know how Daruk died,” the old goron cut him. “That princess of theirs always said she didn’t see it happen, can’t  _ he  _ tell us at least? Or else what’s the good of him surviving?”

“Bludo, you can’t say that!” Yunobo cried out. “I… I don’t care how Daruk passed, and Link doesn’t need to tell us!”

Sidon glanced at his husband, and did not like what he saw. The hylian still sat straight and looked ahead, but his entire face was drained of colour and there was a tension in his body that made it look as though he might bolt away if startled.

“Link is under no obligations to anyone to share what happened on that tragic day,” Sidon proclaimed, dropping the smile. If he hadn’t been so worried about scaring Link, he’d have put one hand on his shoulder. The back of the hylian’s chair was a safer alternative, and one that hopefully still showed he stood by his husband and would not allow for him to be bullied. “No one must speak of their loss if they are uncomfortable with it, and I demand that you respect it. I understand grief makes us say things we would normally not, and so I will not demand apologies from you, sir Bludo. Yet I also hope when you have recovered from your emotions, you  _ will  _ have the good taste of giving apologies to my husband, on your own free will, as he does not deserve to be spoken of in this manner.”

If Sidon was rather proud of himself for keeping his calm, it sadly had little effect on the old goron who scoffed at his polite words. Buldo opened his mouth, clearly intending to say in what manner Link should be spoken of, but before he could say a word Teba stepped in front of him, wings on his hips.

“If he doesn’t want to say, he doesn’t want to say,” the rito hissed, Kass nodding firmly behind him. “You don’t know what he’s seen. Nobody does. But if him and that little hylian queen don’t want to say, maybe they’ve got good reasons, old man. You know what they were against, you’ve seen what Ganon’s minions did to us. Now think very hard: are you sure,  _ really  _ sure, you want to know what they’ve done to the champions that might explain why we never had their bodies back?”

Bludo glared at the rito, but Teba did not flinch and stared right back, unimpressed by that rude old man. Around them a heavy silence had fallen, and some of those who had looked as eager as Bludo to know the truth about their fallen Champions now exhibited signs of doubts. As with everything about the battle, there had been so many rumours regarding the manner in which those four heroes had fallen, each more unpleasant than the last. For the first time since learning of Link’s amnesia, Sidon found himself grateful that his husband had forgotten so much. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know the details of what had happened to his sister.

“All I’m saying is…” Bludo started, only to be cut by Teba.

“I don’t care what you have to say,” the rito announced, feathers puffed in anger. “He doesn’t want to talk about it, I know I wouldn’t want to hear it anyway, and I suspect neither would the others to who the champions were  _ family _ . So let’s move on to the rest of this ceremony, and I swear if I see you bother that hylian kid, you’ll regret it.”

Much as Sidon cringed at that display of aggressivity, it succeeded where his more polite attempt had failed. Bludo huffed and puffed, but he did not insist and returned to his seat. After a few moments of awkward silence, Sidon remembered his role and invited whoever wished to talk about their losses and grief to come forward and share it with everyone. 

At first only some zoras stepped forward to talk about those they had lost when the Guardians attacked, but little by little, some members of the other delegations also stepped up with stories of their own. Normally Sidon would have paid great attention to those tales, as they were a reminder of how much more could have been lost without the Champions who stood against Ganon, but this time he found himself glancing again and again at his husband. For a long while Link remained too still on his chair, his face a deathly white that left Sidon wondering if he should send for Mako in case the hylian was ill. After some slow minutes, some colours returned to Link, his breathing eased somewhat, but he still looked unwell enough that Sidon felt compelled to tell him he could leave if he needed a moment to himself.

“I’ll manage,” Link replied. “It would look bad if I left.”

“After what happened, I’m sure everyone would understand. If they don’t, shame on them, but don’t let that stop you.”

To Sidon’s surprise, a weak smile appeared on Link’ lips.

“You really are annoying with how you always try to do the right thing,” the hylian complained lightly. “Don’t worry, I’m fine and I can stay. I’ve created enough trouble today, I won’t give them more reasons to gossip.”

“As you wish. Still, if at any point you feel the need to leave, just warn me and go. I’ll handle people’s questions.”

Link shrugged, as he so often did, but for once Sidon did not take the gesture as a personal insult. Trusting that the hylian now knew he had played his part for the day, Sidon turned his attention back to the eulogies for those who had been lost, six years earlier.

The evening feast was warmly welcomed by everyone who attended the ceremony, especially their foreign guests. It was more what they expected a royal party to look like, with musicians, dancers, and enough food to feed everyone for a week. After earlier reminders of death, the time had come to celebrate life and all the things their champions had gladly given their lives to protect.

For everyone, it was time to have fun. Everyone save Sidon, Laflat, and all those zoras whose job it was to feed these people and ensure things went smoothly. While their guests ate numerous delicacies and drank the finest alcohols the Domain had to offer, Sidon found himself going from table to table to make sure nobody was objecting to who they had been placed with or where in the room. For this at least he had done a good job, though Lord Kero objected to have been placed with the gorons which nearly lead to him having an argument with Bludo who took offence to that objection. Nothing a little smooth talking and a lot more wine could not solve, thankfully. 

Other members of the council were more reasonable; Seggin was very happy to find himself sitting with some gerudo with who he exchanged stories, Dento debated with another group of gorons on the merit of various gems, Jhiato had found a kindred soul in the rito Kass who was as passionate about history as the old zora. Muzu, on the other hand, had taken young Riju under his fin and took obvious joy in answering all her questions about their traditions, with the same patience he’d once had for Mipha and Sidon when they were this young.

The other heads of delegations also found their own entertainment. Sidon talked a while with Yunobo who, under all his shyness, was a kind young man determined to walk in the steps of his father even if he knew he did not have the same presence as Daruk. Sidon made a note that the goron would be a good ally to have, if they could figure out some treaties to forge a stronger alliance with the people of Death Mountain. The prince’s feelings towards the hylian delegation were not quite as warm, especially since Zelda’s minister kept trying to talk about the Marshland and to figure out what the zoras were planning for that territory. Sidon had to find a balance between remaining polite, and making it clear that it was none of Hyrule’s business. As for Teba… for a good part of the evening, he remained at Kass’s side, looking impossibly bored by the bard’s discussion with Jhiato, his eyes looking for something in the crowd. Sidon did not realise what that might until later in the night, when he looked up from a conversation with Yunobo and noticed Teba had stolen his seat next to Link and was talking to his husband. Had it been anyone but the rito, Sidon might not have minded, but between Teba’s open disapproval for their union and the discomfort he could see on Link’s face… the prince had to intervene. He excused himself to Yunobo and walked back to his own table, smiling politely at Teba.

“I am very sorry, but I fear you are in my chair.”

“What, scared I’ll steal your husband away?” Teba mocked.

“I’ve met Saki and, with all due respect, you’d be a fool to abandon such a woman, even for a man like Link. I would enjoy a chance to sit, though, if you do not mind?”

Teba very much looked like he minded, but before he could say so Link pushed him out of Sidon’s chair with a casualness that shocked the zora. More shocking, perhaps, was the fact that Teba did not protest being treated this way.

“We’ll talk another time,” Link grumbled, a weak smile on his lips. “Or you can ask Kass to write to me for you.”

“I can write on my own, thanks,” Teba retorted, reluctantly getting up. “And you can too, so do it. I don’t care what’s going on, you don’t have to be a stranger.”

Link nodded, his smile staying on until Teba turned his back on them and headed back to his people. 

“I hope he did not bother you,” Sidon said as he reclaimed his chair. “I am sorry, I should have been more careful.”

“Didn’t bother me,” Link huffed, grabbing his fork and poking at his plate. “He just wanted to know why I came to live here and not Tabantha if I wanted to escape Hyrule that badly. Said I’m always welcome there if I want to ditch you.”

“Oh. He did say something of that sort when he arrived yesterday.”

Link shrugged, his eyes distant.

“I was... close to their champion. Very close. Spent a lot of time in rito village when we didn’t need to be training. I probably knew everyone there,” he chuckled with a faint smile.

“Then why didn’t Zelda…”

“Because everyone knew  _ me  _ too,” Link grunted, dropping his fork to empty his glass. “She thought it’d be better if I went somewhere I’ve never visited before so people wouldn’t… notice things. Another reason why Zora’s Domain was perfect. Never came here before, because it’s close to Hateno. My father always intercepted me on the way.”

The more Link spoke of his father, the less Sidon liked the man. Other statement about the Duke of Hateno he could ignore, but it was a fact that they had prepared a few times to receive a visit from Hylia’s chosen hero back in the days, only for Mipha to arrive alone and upset each time.

“I’m sorry you were never able to visit with Mipha as your guide,” Sidon sighed. “I think she would have been very happy to show you her home. She was proud of Zorana after all, and you were one of her dearest friends.”

Link did not reply right away, staring instead at his empty glass with a deep frown. If that conversation was over, Sidon ought to have continued making sure their guests were enjoying the party. If nothing else, he needed to check that lord Kero and Bludo’s drunken friendship had not devolved back into dislike, and…

“How are you holding on?” Link asked. “Can’t be an easy day for you.”

“No, it certainly isn’t,” Sidon agreed with a sigh. “It took a lot of work, but I think our efforts were worth it. It is a rather good feast, if I say so myself, so…”

“Not that,” Link cut him with an impatient handwave. “I meant about your sister. You always sound sad when you speak about her. Must be hard to pretend to have fun on the anniversary of… you know.  _ Today _ .”

Sidon stared at his husband, surprised by that show of concern. Perhaps it was the wine that had done it? Not that Link seemed to have drunk too much, so that wouldn’t explain how Link had noticed it was hard for him to talk about Mipha. Six years and he still missed her dearly.

“Do I look so unhappy then?” Sidon worried.

“No more than usual. But it’s what you do, right? Smile at everything because you’ve got to be polite…”

That made the prince wince.

“ _ Please _ stop treating politeness as a character fault. And I’m… fine. As long as I keep busy I’m  _ fine _ , and as you might have noticed there is plenty to keep me occupied tonight. Thank you for inquiring after my well-being, though. It’s appreciated.”

Link’s answer was to hum without conviction.

“I’m fine,” Sidon insisted.

“Sure. Well, just remember that my offer to vent at me still stands. Doesn’t have to just be when you’re angry. I wouldn’t mind hearing more about Mipha, anyway. I think…” Link hesitated, and sighed. “I think she was very important to me.”

“Then at last we might have something in common.”

“What, missing her?” Link asked with a joyless chuckle, to which Sidon answered with a nod. “I suppose you’re right. It’s all my friendship with Zelda relies on at the moment, so why not with you too?”

Link lifted his glass toward Sidon who quickly filled his own and clinked it against his husband’s in a rather joyless toast. Their gesture was noticed though, and soon imitated by some of the guests with much more cheer. And why not, after all? The feast was a celebration of all that they still had. People deserved to be happy. Even Sidon knew his sister would not have wanted him to be too grim on such a day, so when he rose again from his seat to chat with more of their guests, he did his best to push away the pain that still lingered in his heart.

He hoped Mipha was proud of his efforts to be as good as she had been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry that I've been spectacularly bad at answering comments and stuff. I've been somewhat sick for a good week now, and that's on top of major transportation strikes making my life a bit difficult lately


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this chapter contains some brief mentions of marital abuse. It's quick, and it's only the characters wondering about someone else's situation (and while they don't know yet, I can already tell you that no such thing is happening to the mentioned character)

It was a relief when the last delegation left Zora’s Domain and life returned to normal. Or as normal as they had been for Sidon since Queen Zelda had first offered her champion as a spouse for him. If he were honest, he much preferred trying to make sense of the mess that were the Marshlands than spend another moment keeping an eye on Bludo, or dealing with Teba’s newfound aggressiveness.

And the Marshlands did need a lot of dealing with. Sidon had come to the conclusion that relying only on old documents simply would not be enough, which Laflat agreed with. They needed new information, the opinion of experts who would have seen firsthand the situation to determine how much of these lands had been damaged by hylian presence and abandonment, how much could be restored. Sidon had started mentioning the idea around his father, and he could tell Dorephan approved. Hopeful, that approval would remain when he’d understand that Sidon intended to go in person with whatever team they would send there. The king would not like it, that much was certain. He hadn’t liked when Sidon went to their neighbours for past anniversaries of Ganon’s defeat, so allowing the prince to go into unchecked territories where monsters were rumoured to roam sometimes… But Sidon was determined to argue his case. It would be good for his image to be seen as active. More selfishly, he was curious about this place for which he’d sacrificed a lot.

It wasn’t as if he would be unprotected anyway. On that morning, Sidon was preparing a list of requirements for the knights who would accompany the team of experts, so Seggin might handpick the best suited elements of his corps. And though he hadn’t yet told Laflat, Sidon was also considering asking Link to join them. He was concerned by this business after all, and having a hylian among them would make it easier to deal with the locals. Besides, he thought Link might appreciate it, and it might be a good chance to spend time with his husband in a setting where the hylian was more comfortable.

They’d been doing… well enough, lately, Sidon thought, putting down his pen for a moment. Sidon had still never taken advantage of Link’s offer to let him vent when he was upset, but they’d had a few conversations here and there about Mipha. Each time, Link had appeared sincerely grateful to learn more about the friend he could not remember, while Sidon enjoyed the chance to talk about his sister and not have to pretend her loss no longer hurt. If they were still far from being friends, Sidon was started to feel certain that they would someday reach that sort of relationships. In a while, when they would have learned to exist around each other…

There was a knock on the door, which gave Sidon pause. It had not been the soft knock of a servant who did not want to disturb him if he was working. Laflat might have announced herself this way, but she was helping Muzu this afternoon, and they were the only two who might have come to the prince’s office without making an appointment first. Unless there was an emergency…

His thoughts full of his father, Sidon jumped to the door, only to find Link waiting there with a decidedly grim expression.

“We need to talk,” the hylian announced, pushing past his husband and forcing his way into the room.

Sidon carefully closed the door in case they were about to have an argument. So much for them getting along, he supposed. What could be the problem, though? They’d really had gotten along fairly well since that duck incident, and Sidon was rather certain he hadn’t done anything lately that might have angered his husband.

“I’m listening.”

“Do I have money?” Link asked bluntly, though he must have been nervous, as he kept playing with a small piece of paper he was holding. “I’ve been here for months, and I realise I’ve never had to spend money on anything, which is crazy.”

“I pay for your servants and all your daily needs. You do have an allowance though. I would have imagined Laflat might have explained that to you when you started living here?”

That gave the hylian some pause, and his hands stilled.

“Maybe she did,” he conceded, looking away. “I honestly didn’t listen to everything that I was told back then. Too many people saying too many things. But I do have money, then?”

Sidon nodded, unsure if he was still annoyed at how little Link had cared about anything in the early days. Now that it was biting the hylian in the ass, it felt somewhat amusing.

“If you ask Laflat, I’m sure she’ll be happy to give you all the details. May I ask why you suddenly need to know this? Does your horse need a new saddle perhaps?”

“My sister gave birth,” Link sighed, looking briefly at the paper in his hands before twisting it again. “Four weeks ago, but the news took time to get to my parents, and then my mother didn’t think right away of warning me because she ‘wasn’t sure I’d care’, and…”

“Oh, congratulations!” Sidon exclaimed, too excited to let him finish. “This is wonderful! Is she well? Is the child well?”

Link stared, blinking a few times as if he hadn’t expected that sort of reaction, then shrugged, twisting the note from his mother almost to the point of ripping it.

“I guess they’re both fine, or my mother would have said something.”

“Truly wonderful! I’ve read that hylian childbearing can be a dangerous affair, I am so glad your sister did not encounter any problems. We must celebrate! I’ll warn father, he’s sure to be delighted… and of course we must send a present. What’s traditional for hylians, in such circumstances?”

“Not sure, I was very little when Aryll was born,” Link replied with a thin smile. “So I didn’t pay attention to the presents. And then, when I should have become involved in sending presents to other families, I pulled that stupid sword and… well.”

Sidon nodded distractedly, barely listening as he sat at his desk to make a list of ideas. “Laflat will know what to get,” the prince muttered, mostly to himself. “If she doesn’t Muzu will for sure. But perhaps we might gift them something more along zora traditions? She’s married to the Duke of Horon and there are no zoras in Holodrum, so even something that isn’t directly useful might be appreciated as a novelty. Still, if it can be something useful to the child… And it must be something that can easily survive such a long trip. Oh, but perhaps medicine might be a good idea too? Children can be delicate so...”

An odd noise interrupted him, and Sidon found his husband struggling not to laugh.

“What’s wrong?”

“You’ll be the worst sort of father,” the hylian snorted. “This kid isn’t even yours and look at you! Trying to spoil it and all...”

Sidon shrugged, then winced at the gesture. Curse Link for infecting him with that.

“Unless I’m very mistaken about hylian reproduction and some details of your personal anatomy, I doubt I’ll ever be a father. Not to mention, of course, that zora and hylians are not known to be capable of… hybridization.”

“I’ll be dead in fifty years, if even that,” Link retorted lightly. “Plenty of time for you to have a real spouse. But more on topic: don’t bother with that gifting thing. It’s my sister, my nephew… I can find a present myself, I just needed to know I have the money for it. I’m sure I’ll think of something good. We used to be close, so I should know what she likes, right?”

There was an edge to the hylian’s voice that didn’t escape Sidon. His posture remained relaxed, but there was a slight frown on his face, as if he were angry at something.

“Not everyone can be good at making presents,” Sidon told him. “Especially considering your… condition. Or do you remember more about her than you do about… other people?”

His attempt at softening the blow by not mentioning the champions failed. Link’s frown deepened. The hylian shook his head and huffed.

“I don’t remember much, but I know I miss her.”

“I’m sensing a pattern here,” Sidon noted. He winced. “Sorry, that was rude.”

To his surprise, Link laughed. “No, you’re not wrong. I’m missing a lot of people without really knowing why. But it’s particularly frustrating with my sister because she’s still alive. If my father hadn’t sent her off so far, I could be talking to her, visiting her… She’s alive, but Holodrum is so far she might as well not be.”

Sidon took a moment to consider that problem. He’d had similar thoughts some years earlier, when his sister was never home because of that Champion business… though at least, he’d had memory to soften the blow of her absence.

“You could write to her. It’s slow, and I realise it isn’t what you truly want, but that would be better than nothing. In fact…” Sidon hesitated, but only for a second. “There are many people to whom you could write. It might be easier to talk with your old friends of Tabantha and not fear that you might let your secret be discovered, for example. Teba said he would appreciate that, didn’t he?”

And perhaps that way, next time Sidon met Teba, the rito would have understood that Link hadn’t been coerced into living in Zora’s Domain. It wasn’t that he was afraid of Teba, but he would be more comfortable without someone this influential hating him without reason.

“I’m not a great writer,” Link sighed. “I don’t know what I’d say aside from missing them and being sorry I can’t be there.”

“I could help you. I am quite used to holding correspondances.”

Link stared at him with an unreadable expression, and Sidon sighed.

“I’m sorry, I can imagine you don’t want me gill deep in your business. Still, perhaps Laflat could…”

“No, fine. We can try that.”

“What?”

The hylian’s eyes shone with an odd fire, though the rest of his face remained impassable.

“Help me write to my sister, at least the first time,” Link said, speaking slowly as if the words were a surprise to him too. “You’re always so damn nice about everything, it’s worth a try.”

“Being nice isn’t…”

“It isn’t a character fault, and neither is being polite,” Link sighed with a dismissive hand wave, a thin smile on his lips. “Let’s find some paper for now, you can explain how perfect you are another time.”

Much as Sidon wanted to protest he wasn’t perfect either, Link was right that now wasn’t the time for arguments. Thankfully, there was plenty of paper on his desk, which he gave along with some charcoal to Link so they could figure out a first draft together. Since there was only one chair, Sidon also gave it to the hylian, and started pacing behind him as he thought of what they might say.

Link hadn’t lied when he said he wasn’t of a literary inclination. Aside from missing his sister and congratulating her for her wedding and child, he had no idea what to put in the letter.

“She’ll want to know about our marriage too,” Sidon pointed out. “Give her some details on the ceremony, tell her if you like it in Zora’s Domain… or you can tell her how terribly annoying all zoras are. I won’t take offence.”

“Most zoras are quite nice,” Link protested as he wrote down a few sentences.

“Just not the one you’re married to,” Sidon huffed, rather amused at the idea.

“You might be slightly better than I first thought,” Link conceded without looking up from his letter. “Fine, then what?”

“Ask her for news about her own life. It’s been a big change for her too, I’m sure she will have plenty to say.”

Link nodded, and wrote some more. If he had little to say about himself, the hylian appeared full of questions for his sister. For a few minutes there was no noise but the scratching of charcoal on paper.

“It’s already pretty long,” Link noted when he was done, staring at his half page as if he’d written a full saga. 

Sidon couldn’t help a chuckle. Lutera would have found more to say, and she was still learning to write. As if guessing his thoughts, Link grimaced.

“I just don’t know what more to ask, and so I don’t know what more to say.”

“You might tell her more about your life here. You’ve made friends among the young knights, haven’t you? After everything that has happened to you, I’m sure it would be a comfort to know that you are not... all alone.”

“Oh, she knows I’m not alone. I’m telling her about Epona.”

Sidon grimaced at the thought that Link’s horse was still at the center of his affections, and the hylian chuckled.

“I’m joking. Well, partly. I will tell her about Epona for sure, but you’re right about the froglets. And I should tell her about Lutera too. And Laflat. Oh, and Muzu of course. He’s too old to be a friend, but he does help a lot.”

The half page became a full one, and soon Link had to turn around his sheet of paper. Sidon couldn’t help a smile, glad that the hylian was acclimating to Zorana after all and that he had found people he liked well enough. That Sidon’s own name hadn’t been mentioned on his list of important zora was… not a surprise, he told himself, nor was it a disappointment. They were starting to learn to exist together, but nothing close to being worthy of the name friendship. If it were Sidon writing to dear relatives, he would…

Well, he would talk about Link certainly. Extensively. For better or for worse, the hylian had changed his life profoundly, and everything he did these days was tied to this marriage, especially the Marshlands. If only for show, Sidon would have to find some kind words to say about his husband, as would be expected of him. Still, if he were writing to Mipha and she had never met Link… Then he would write pages after pages to say how maddening that hylian was, how rude and self centered he could be! And, perhaps, to his sister and only to her, he might admit that he didn’t entirely dislike his husband. Sidon wasn’t so foolish as to believe love could ever be an option, but he did feel a certain protectiveness for this man who had given so much for the world, and seemed to have received little in return. Mipha might have teased him for that, or congratulated him for seeing past Link’s facade… or rather more likely, she’d have done both. She liked to laugh, and she never missed a chance to tease him.

But of course, he’d never have needed to marry so soon if she had still been alive, her own union had given them such a strong political advantage for what little time it had lasted, and…

“Do you write Zorana with one or two ‘n’?” Link asked, biting on the end of his piece of charcoal and not caring how it blackened his lips.

“I believe in hylian script it takes only one.”

Link sighed, clearly displeased by that answer, and went over his sheet once more to cross a few superfluous letters. Or rather, his sheets. While Sidon had been lost in thought, his husband had started on a second page. It still wasn’t a long letter, but that was great progress for someone who had proclaimed he had nothing to say.

“Do you think I should add a word for her husband? That would be polite, wouldn’t it?”

“If you prefer, I can direct my own letter at him,” Sidon offered, refusing to take the bait. “He’s higher ranking and so am I, so he might prefer that, and that way your sister won’t have to share her letter if she doesn’t wish to.”

The small smile that had been near constant on Link’s lips disappeared.

“I hope he treats her well. She wasn’t married very long before she became pregnant…”

“I’ve always heard that the Duke of Horon was a young man of good manners and good temper,” Sidon replied, though he knew some people had said the same of many an unworthy man. “If she’s unhappy though, I’m sure she’ll find a way to let you know, and we’ll devise a plan to deal with that. She wouldn’t be the first noblewoman to live as a permanent guest, far from her husband. He has a son now, and if he is an unkind man, that would be his only worry.”

Biting on his charcoal once more, Link stared at Sidon with a pensive expression for a few moments. Then, without a word, he went back to his letter, adding another half page to it. 

“Please do not tell her to run away if she’s unhappy,” Sidon begged. “I promise we’ll handle it if it comes to that, but it would be very unwise…”

“I know, I’m not stupid. I just thought of more things to tell her about life here.”

When at last he was satisfied with his letter, Link carefully folded it and shoved it in his pocket so that he might copy it cleanly when he would return to his lodgings. He then returned the half bitten off charcoal to Sidon who hesitantly took it back.

“Next time, maybe try not to eat your pen,” he suggested, knowing he’d throw away the charcoal the instant he was alone. “That cannot be good for you.”

“Not so bad either,” Link retorted, wiping his mouth with the hem of his tunic. “It’s a stupid habit I picked up on Death Mountain. Gorons put charcoal everywhere, did you know that? It’s like salt to hylians. The taste is peculiar, but not so bad when you’re used to it.”

Sidon did know that gorons had a fondness for charcoal, having planned meals for them. That didn’t make it good for other races to eat though, not in the least, considering what other things they ate. Still, if Link enjoyed it and wasn’t going to become sick, that was his problem. Another oddity in an already very odd hylian.

“I’ll let you work now,” Link said when his mouth was finally a little less dirty. “Thank you for the help, really. I… that means a lot to me. My sister, she’s… I don’t have a lot of people left, I don’t want to lose her too.”

“I was glad to help,” Sidon assured him. An idea hit him. “You know though, maybe you can repay me.”

That might have been the wrong way to say it. Immediately Link tensed, his eyes narrowing in suspicions. They’d made progress the two of them, but not enough for Sidon to be joking yet.

“I just wanted to ask if you would join Laflat and me on a trip to the Marshlands,” the prince quickly explained. “You are free to refuse, but I thought it might be interesting to you. You used to travel a lot, didn’t you?”

The hylian relaxed, and nodded so quickly his hair was flying around his face.

“I suppose I wouldn’t mind that. Epona would enjoy that for sure. She’d come too, right?”

“I don’t think I could separate you from her, so yes.”

Link grinned at the thought, his eyes lighting up as they’d never done before. In that moment he looked young. Not in the vulnerable way that Sidon had noticed sometimes, when his husband was nervous or felt cornered. Link looked young and, for the first time of their acquaintance, full of life and full of hope. 

After that, the hylian quickly took his leave, clearly excited to go copy his letter and start planning their trip. Even after he was gone, Sidon found himself staring at the door for a moment, his heart beating a little faster than it should have. An odd sensation, and one he could not quite explain. Tiredness maybe? It had been a long day, and a pause might be in order… he just needed to put some quick order to his papers, and he would see if Lutera was interested in spending some time with her favourite uncle.


	12. Chapter 12

It took a few weeks to convince King Dorephan to let Sidon and Link go with the expert team to the Marshlands. Even then, it was only accepted at the condition they took plenty of knights to defend them, and did nothing to put themselves in danger. Although Link was the one with a history of recklessness (he had fought a demon king at 17, it was hard to conceive of something more reckless), Sidon had the impression that this demand was more specifically directed at himself.

That impression was rather confirmed when, moments later, the King had sternly looked at Link.

“Keep an eye on my son,” he asked of the hylian. “He doesn’t have your experience with these things, and I don’t want to see him hurt.”

If things were different, that might have been a normal request from a protective parent. Sidon would just be slightly offended at his father’s lack of trust for his capacities. But with their shared past, with the ghost of Mipha ever in their mind, Sidon couldn’t help a shudder as Link paled and nodded firmly. He wished Link would tell Dorephan about his memory problems. The king would not have said something of that sort if he knew how much his son-in-law struggled with what had happened.

Maybe when they’d be back, Sidon would pester Link to tell his father the truth. It hit him as something both men would need.

  
  


It took them a few days to reach the Marshlands, this time going inside the territory rather than sticking to the edges of it as they had for the wedding. It gave Sidon the impression of a land at once desolate and teeming with life, entirely unlike the rest of Zorana. Vegetation did not grow very tall, save from some group of trees here and there, where the land was less saturated with water. Compared to the hills and cliffs of Zora’s Domain, there was something a little unsettling to this land that seemed to never end. It left Sidon feeling exposed, and he was glad for the presence of Rivan and a few other knights. He knew that anything or anyone trying to attack them would be seen from afar, but he hated that they too were so visible.

His worried were clearly not shared by all. If nothing else, Link clearly delighted in those open spaces where he could send his horse running on what remained of roads. He smiled more easily, which was to be expected when he could be with Epona, but also chatted more willingly. His favourite company was Rivan and the other knights, but he also often started conversations with the various experts of the group. Usually that was because he had a question about something he had seen, an odd plant he had picked up, a critter he’d captured. However much reluctance he’d shown toward learning anything in Zora’s Domain, out there in the wild his curiosity appeared to know no limits. Sidon thought it should have upset him, but it didn’t. If anything, he rather enjoyed discovering that new side of his husband. It made him feel a little less like he was married to a ghost.

Not that he was happy about every change in Link since they had arrived in the Marshland. The hylian had some odd hobbies, such as compulsively collecting rocks and herbs. He also had a very unsettling tendency to… eat things.

_ Any _ thing.

“People really will think you’re mad!” Sidon complained when, one evening, he couldn’t stop Link from swallowing an entire cricket.

“I’m not eating anything dangerous,” Link retorted, laughing with a sincere joy that Sidon had never seen in him. “It’s a game we used to play, back when… before. It was fun to see who could find the weirdest thing to eat.”

Sidon grimaced at the idea. Considering the very different diets of all five races, that was a game that could easily go very far.

“I’m surprised Queen Zelda didn’t put an end to this,” he noted sternly.

Link only grinned wider. “She started the game, actually! She challenged me to put a small frog in my mouth, and I accidentally swallowed it.”

“Then surely Lady Urbosa or my sister…”

“Urbosa didn’t really play, but she found us very funny,” Link retorted. “And I’ve seen your sister eat fireflies more than once. Zelda’s idea.”

The idea of Zelda, always so cold and dignified, proposing that sort of things, was absolutely ridiculous. Sidon didn’t think he’d ever seen her laugh. The hylian queen was nothing but grace, composure, and respectability. And yet, why would Link lie? 

Still, while he seemed to be remembering things left and right these days, maybe this was one memory that would have been better left alone.

“Even if I understand the… nostalgia of that game of yours, please tone it down a little?” Sidon asked. “After all, you’re the only one playing it now, it can’t be that fun to you, can it?”

That, sadly, proved to be the very worst way Sidon could have made that request. Link understood it to mean that his game was weird _ because _he was playing it alone, so the hylian set out to recruit Dunma and Tottika into his madness. To Sidon’s consternation, they followed him, delighting in trying to gross out one another. Worse still, Rivan failed to see a problem, and said he could not tell them to stop as long as they were careful to still do their job and did not bother anyone. 

At least the hylian never dared to suggest his husband should join that terrible game, for which Sidon was grateful and in no way _ disappointed _that he hadn’t been offered at least once.

When they arrived on the first hylian village of their tour, it quickly became very clear to Sidon that the zoras were not welcome there. He’d met enough hylians to recognise the way they expressed fear and, on some of the faces, aggression.

In spite of that, these people greeted them with great politeness, and their chief invited Sidon and his little company into her house. They could not all fit in that tiny place though, so only Sidon, Link and Rivan went in. Even that way, the zora prince had to remain bent in two and to keep his head down if he didn’t want for his head to hit the ceiling.

“We can return outside,” the village chief offered, worry written all over her face. “I… I’m sure we can try to find something for you to sit on so it’s more comfortable, or…”

“Don’t worry, I’m quite used to this,” Sidon assured him with his warmest smile. “Now, I’m sure you have been informed that there have been some firm decisions reached between Hyrule and Zorana concerning the ownership of the Marshlands. I imagine you must have many questions regarding what changes this will bring for your people…”

“Will we be forced back to Hyrule?” the chief quickly asked. “We’ve always lived here, since at least my great-great-grandmother’s days, most of us have never even _ been _in Hyrule!”

From his conversations with Link, that was something Sidon had expected to hear. He maintained his smiled, ready to assuage those fears, but Link beat him to it.

“Nobody’s going to be evicted,” he proclaimed, staring coldly at his husband as if to challenge him to say otherwise. “We’re not here to harm people, we’re here to make the Marshland a better place.”

It should have annoyed Sidon that Link was taking this into his own hands. Instead he felt something in his chest twist unpleasantly at the thought that Link still did not trust him, not when it came to politics anyway.

More surprisingly, Sidon also felt a twinge of pride for this little man who was so ready to fight for people he did not even know.

“My husband is right,” Sidon told the village chief, glad to see Link’s shoulders relax a little. “I have come here with some experts to try to better understand how our territories are occupied by the people living on them, and to determine if some things need to be changed or improved. We are however also very willing to learn from the hylians living here. The Marshlands are more hostile to your people than they are to ours, and I for one am very curious to understand how you manage to thrive so well in a place such as this.”

“So we won’t be moved?” the woman insisted, looking at Link rather than at Sidon. 

The zora prince expected another bold declaration, but instead his husband sighed and grimaced slightly.

“We’ll do everything to avoid it, right, your majesty?”

“It will only be used as a very last resort, if our hands are forced,” Sidon confirmed. “If it happens, everyone in this village will be compensated for what they’re losing and helped to settle at a more appropriate location, hopefully still within the Marshlands… though if you decide that you would rather return to Hyrule after all, negotiations with Queen Zelda will be opened on that topic. As Lord Link said, our only aim is to make the Marshlands a better place to live in, and that cannot happen without the cooperation of the people who live here.”

The village chief did not look entirely convinced by that grandiose declaration, but Sidon had not expected her to be. It was enough that she was somewhat comforted she wouldn’t be driven out of her home on the spot, as she had clearly feared, and that they could start discussing more in detail what Sidon’s experts would be doing in the surrounding areas for the few days they would be spending there. 

A few times the woman’s eyes became shrouded in concern as Sidon’s explanation extended, but Link always picked up on it and made efforts to rephrase things in more simple terms while being careful not to treat her as stupid. His voice was gentle but never condescending, his manners were perfect and there was a rare warmth to his smile that told Sidon how sincerely his husband wanted for this to work well. This wasn’t the broken Hero of Hyrule that Sidon had met months ago, nor the young wild boy he’d started discovering on this journey, but yet another side of this funny little hylian who never ceased to surprise.

When everything was settled and the village chief had a clearer view of what was to come, the zoras and Link exited her little house to go check the camp that their group had prepared a little outside of the village by a small pond. They could have requested to be housed by the villagers, but Sidon had figured that would be both cruel to people who already had little of their own, and a bad political move when the zoras wanted to prove they were not here to impose their dominion on their new hylian subjects.

Besides, hylian houses were ill-suited for zoras and Sidon at least would never have managed to sleep in one.

They did however accept the chief’s invitation to have a shared meal, if only because Link made it plenty clear that it would be extremely rude to refuse. After some negotiations, Sidon obtained that his group would contribute some of the food, on the grounds that they could not easily eat most hylian foods.

At least, they had Link with them who could easily, and gladly, eat everything that the villagers presented to him. His earlier lordly manners were gone, with his wild, impulsive side emerging again as he tasted everything and asked for recipes that he carefully wrote down on paper. That endeared him to those poor people who had not expected some great, half legendary lord to treat their cooking with such enthusiasm (all of which was genuine too, Sidon would have bet on it) and they soon started to treat him as one of their own. It seemed to please Link well enough, who was just as ease with them as he was when he trained with the young knights in Zora’s Domain.

They were more or less done eating when a few children realised that Link wasn’t so much older than them, and decided that he had to be as bored with all the grown-up talk as they were. They sent one of them, a girl taller than Link (though probably younger in age), to ask him if he wanted them to show him around the village. It was impossible to miss the way Link’s eyes lit up at the prospect, though surprisingly, he did not answer right away and turned to Sidon.

“Would that be acceptable?” he asked, a hint of his earlier politeness returning even when it’s so clear how badly he wants to go and have fun.

“You don’t need to ask for permission,” Sidon replied, a little baffled at the question when usually his husband only did as he pleased… though they were in a somewhat official setting and Link usually tried to be well-behaved in public, didn’t he? “Try to return to camp before it gets too dark.”

“I will,” Link promised, jumping from his seat to join the little group of children and teenagers who quickly dragged him away.

Sidon did not see him again for the rest of the evening, even as the zora helped clean up after this little impromptu banquet on the village’s main square. As the zora delegation made their way back toward their camp, Sidon spotted some of the younger children return to their parents, but the older ones were still gone Hylia knew where.

Up to some mischief certainly, though hopeful of an innocent nature. Sidon did not know enough about hylian preferences to judge if any of those older teenagers had been attractive, but alone on the edge of the pond and waiting for his husband to return, he found himself wondering.

Faithfulness wasn’t something they had discussed yet, mostly because Sidon hadn’t thought it was necessary. He, as a prince, was held to the highest standards in his behaviours and he had to be a model to his people. As for Link, the way he’d behaved in the early weeks had convinced Sidon that nobody would want someone like that as a lover.

He wasn’t so sure of that anymore. Link could be rather charming when he was in the right mood. His smile, when it was sincere, had a warmth to it so communicative that Sidon often found himself smiling too, even when his husband was just grinning about something particularly gross that he’d just eaten. It was hard to tell if Link was physically attractive by hylian standards, but there was nothing obviously wrong with his face and his shape, so Sidon had to assume his husband probably wasn’t judge ugly by his own people. In fact, even Sidon himself would have considered him not unpleasant to look at.

Perhaps they did need to talk about the degree of fidelity that could be expected between them. Whatever rules Sidon was bound to, it would might be cruel to force Link to obey them too. After all Sidon would likely remarry one day, whereas Link was trapped in this marriage for the rest of his life. It was oddly unpleasant to imagine his husband seeking comforts with another person, but that was only because Sidon had been taught to have high standards for himself. If Link desired a partner more to his liking, and if he could be convinced to be discreet about it, Sidon would have no right to refuse it.

The moon was high in the sky when, at last, Sidon caught sight of a small silhouette entering their camp. He quickly left the water to go greet his husband, half wanting to scold him for being so late, but once he was close enough to properly see Link, Sidon started laughing.

Link, hero of Hyrule, heir of Hateno, consort to the prince of Zorana, was covered from head to toe in a thick layer of mud that had already started drying in places.

“Do I even want to know what happened?” Sidon huffed, trying to keep his hilarity down so he wouldn’t wake everyone.

“Let’s just say someone started a fight and they shouldn’t have,” Link retorted, turning up his nose in a way that might have been a little more dignified is he didn’t look like a two legged mudfish.

“I see. Did you win, at least?”

Link grinned. “Of course. It would have dishonoured my husband if I lost on his new territories, so I fought to make you proud, your majesty.”

It was so ridiculously grandiose, and Link sounded so obviously half delirious from exhaustion, that Sidon couldn’t help chuckling.

“I’m very proud indeed. I fear we might need to get you cleaned up a bit now, though, preferably before all this dries.”

Bringing a hand to his hair, Link grimaced, which provoked cracks on the mud on his cheeks. Sidon remembered being very young and playing outside in the rain until he had ended up in a similar state, so he knew how uncomfortable his husband had to be getting. Putting one hand on Link’s shoulder, he pushed him toward the pond so he could clean up and they both could sleep. 

He had to help Link undress at first, and the hylian allowed it easily. Sidon found himself wishing it were a proof of trust between them, though he figured it was just a proof of Link being too tired to care about anything but cleaning himself and going to bed. Still, it was oddly pleasant to have Link appear so comfortable near him. More pleasant than Sidon would have expected… but he refused to dwell on that thought. It felt dangerous, somehow. Like something he wasn’t supposed to feel or want.

Instead, Sidon focused on the task at hand, helping Link get rid of as much of the mud as they could without disturbing the water and the zoras sleeping in it. When Link was in an acceptable state at last, Sidon helped him dry himself, and made sure he was comfortably tucked in a blanket before he returned to the pond. He soon fell asleep too, glad that his husband’s mischief that night had been of the most innocent sort imaginable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this was worth the wait! I've struggled a fair bit with this chapter because from the start I had decided Link would be pretty different away from court settings, but I couldn't decide how wild I could let him be. Still, hopefully it won't take quite as long until the next update! Orz


End file.
